More than any professional obstacle Eran Zehavi faced in his alumni career, his biggest challenge was probably dealing with the supplier. The debate between his supporters and opponents, when it comes to football anyway, has never been between “yes” and “no”. With the exception of people who troll their art, it is clear to any sane person that this is a better-than-average footballer. Although less technical than some of the regular candidates in the category of “best footballer”, but a great winner, a great conqueror, and with virtues in almost all basic values - excellent head game (Basel elders know how to tell), sharp and accurate kick (there are some Austrians who know this very well) – And most importantly, a tremendous sense of drama and timing. He’s always in the right place, it seems. On this – I think – the majority (even those who in his iniquities received from him in the head) agree.
The argument was between the resounding “yes” of his supporters, and the other side advocating “yes, but”. When Zehavi demonstrated some of his abilities at Hapoel Tel Aviv, the credit was given to Gili Vermot and Itai Schechter. When Zehavi won in bundles at Maccabi Tel Aviv, they knew how to attribute this to the “weak league”. When Zahavi did not stop conquering in China, with numbers that did not even have players with a better record than him, they made sure to point out the weak defenses, the local goalkeepers, the fact that the whole business there was unprofessional. When Zahavi lambed the team, you were immediately directed to the team position in the table. Lest you misunderstand – all of these arguments are valid, and yet, they miss the point. The same point that Zahavi makes clear when he becomes, also in the Netherlands and despite the reviews from the local media, the main player of PSV Eindhoven – as he has done all his career.
But Zahavi, slowly but surely, removed all doubts, all the “mourners”, one after the other. Remember the debate over who is better, Zehavi or Raphaelov? Remember the big debate that took place over the question “Eran Zehavi or Tomer Hemed”? Do not remember? This is exactly the point. Both Raphaelov and Hemed are two great football players, who at the end of their careers could attribute quite a few credit points to themselves, but Zehavi’s actions left the argument, took down the question marks and turned them into exclamation marks. Again, and again, and again. Even after the Corona, even in a challenging European league, including in the European frameworks, including against top teams.
And in the end, that’s what history will remember. When the arguments and discussions (including this very article you are reading right now) are gathering dust in the archives of Google and Twitter, the statistical line will remain – the data will remain. And the data is that for almost a decade, Eran Zehavi has set supreme numbers. From Israel, through China, through the Champions League, through the national team, to the pitches of the Netherlands. From Teddy and Bloomfield, through St. Jacobs, to the Johan Cruyff Arena. Doing exactly the same thing, positioning in exactly the same way, celebrating exactly the same celebration. The set changes, the conditions change, the player is older – but the action is the same. It seems that the exiles can also be reproduced accurately, and even to the alert viewer it seems to be almost the same cover in a rerun. The exiles he gave in front of Israeli and Chinese goalkeepers, he now does in front of goalkeepers in the Netherlands.
Avi Meller (commentator and role model) defined the Champions League final between Milan and Liverpool, with the memorable turnaround of Gerard, Benitez and friends, as a “cemetery for commentators”. Eran Zehavi’s career, for the same weight, is a “cemetery for doubts.” One by one, in the famous “Pio Pio” movement, he shoots all the questions, all the thoughts, when in the end – nothing will remain, except the summaries, the numbers and the premise. It could very well be that in a few years, when Zahavi hangs up his shoes, we will find that the whole mountain of words we have shed will turn out to be of less value. That all the looking at the rivals, the goalkeepers, the pitches, the spotlight – ignored the one man who was always there, at the right moment.
It is very possible that at the end of the career, when all the words will be forgotten and disappear and only the deeds will remain, we will understand that their golden hair was the greatest. With all due respect to the bland, at the end there is a main point – and the main point is that we contract a historical footballer, who went through step by step on the scale, with the same consistency, with the same determination, and with the same power he had at a young age. When the dust settles, and the tweets dissipate, he will stand there. himself.
