Eyal Berkovic
, also spelled
Berkovich, born
April 2,
1972 in
Haifa,
Israel) is an
Israeli footballer. He played as a
midfielder. He is currently the manager of
Maccabi Netanya.
Berkovic is regarded both as a real professional with a truly sportsman like attitude towards the game, and as a football genius who improves all the players around him and breaks opponent's defences with his masterpiece passes. Although not a frequent scorer, he has been known to score crucial goals, some of which have been quite spectacular. Hailed by many for his game intelligence and his cunning ability to avoid tackles and fouls from defenders, he is considered to be one of Israel's best football players. Because of his amazing assists, he is known in Israel by the nickname
Ha-Kosem (lit. "The Magician").
Aside from his footballing talent, Berkovic is also known for his temperament. He has had several clashes with teammates, most notably the Israeli footballers
Reuven Atar and
Eli Ohana, and with
Welsh striker
John Hartson. His autobiography
Ha-Kosem (The Magician) sparked controversy with the
Israeli football scene because of the sharp and straight criticism of many of its figures.
Berkovic started his career at
Maccabi Haifa in 1989, playing there until 1996. During his time with the club he won league titles in 1990-91 and 1994-95, and the
State Cup three times, including a 'double' in the 1990-91 season. His performances for the club earned him a call-up to the
Israeli national team as well as the
MVP award for 1993-4 season.
For the
1996-97 season, Berkovic signed for
English club
Southampton. He proved to be a big influence, and was a major part of the famous 6-3 victory over
Manchester United. The next season he was signed by
West Ham United for £1.75 million, for whom he played for two seasons, appearing in 64 games. He was then signed for £5.75 million by
Celtic, who were at that point coached by
John Barnes. He played for the
Scottish club for two years scoring an impressive number of goals but
Martin O'Neill a man who prefers passionate hard workers rather than flair players left him out of the team when he took over the Glasgow giants as manager and Berkovic returned to England to join
Blackburn Rovers on loan for the
2001-02 season. He remained only a short while before earning a permanent move to
Manchester City the following year.
His first game for the blue half of
Manchester saw him score in a man of the match display against
Watford then managed by
Gianluca Vialli. He helped the team win promotion to the
Premiership where he was instrumental in a 3-1 victory over local rivals
Manchester United a team he had also helped
Southampton demolish 6-3 in the late 1990's scoring two wonderful goals. He was voted as Manchester City's player of the season in 2002-03 in the club's magazine by former player and radio personality
Gary Owen and was also described by Keegan as 'world class'. Despite becoming a firm favourite with the fans, a fallout with manager
Kevin Keegan saw him transferred to
Portsmouth for the
2003-04 season. Ironically his first game for Pompey was against Manchester City whom he helped destroy 4-0. After the game he publicly lambasted
Kevin Keegan arguing that he should get the sack for not starting him that season when everyone knew he was the teams best player. He soon established himself in the first team at Pompey where he was reunited with former West Ham United manager
Harry Redknapp, and became a vital part of their drive for
Premier League survival.
However, he failed to hold down a regular starting place in the team for the
2004-05 season season mainly due to Redknapp's departure, and in January 2005 left Portsmouth to return to Israel to play for
Maccabi Tel-Aviv.
Berkovic has played 82
caps and scored 14 goals for the Israeli national team, but was left out of the
World Cup 2006 qualifying campaign by coach
Avraham Grant.
He announced his retirement from professional football on May 7th, 2006. In the summer of 2006 he was appointed as the general manager of
Maccabi Netanya. However he was manager only for two months and did not even have the chance to manage the team in season games. He stated that he
left the job due to poor professional relations with Daniel Jammer (who is the clubs owner and chairman). Berkovic had been an active manager in the transfer market during his two months signing fifteen players including
Mazua Ensombo,
Liran Strauber and
Itai Shekhter.
He is married and has two children.
*
Eyal Berkovic at Soccerbase
*
"Berkovic signs with Maccabi (Tel-Aviv)" at
Eurosport.com
