O.K I said it: I am a Football (Soccer for you North Americans) Fanatic with a capital F. I grew up playing football, I was pretty good at it. At the age of 16 I was promoted to the first team of my home town club Macabbi Rehovoth which was than in the Israeli premier league. I was mainly warming the bench as a substitute on a good day and did not make the squad in many other matches. But I did substitute and later started a few matches and showed some promise. At the time Israeli football was an amateur sport. You had to pay to play and buy your own cleats if your parents could afford it or wear the cleats that the top team players   discarded. I did much better at the youth level where my main accomplishment was to make the expanded 35 roster of the national junior team but was cut from the 22 player squad that went on to represent Israel in international tournaments. In my position as a right winger I was fast, energetic, attack minded and scored a few goals but nothing to write home about. Later in my short lived career and by strict chance I became a decent goalkeeper. In one of our matches our goalkeeper was injured and I was called to substitute him not having played in that position before. As beginner's luck would have it I saved not one but two penalty kicks in my first time as a goalkeeper so they kept me in goal. My hardly illustrious carrer eneded at the age of 18 as aresult of a torn groin muscle from a clear Red Card tackle by an opposing player. However Football (as for many other kids in Israel) continued to flow in my veins. Later in Canada I coached youth soccer including coaching my two sons to whom I transmitted the Football bug. When I say fanatic I mean that I not only follow (mainly) European football (English premier, Spanish La Liga, Italian serie A and the German Bundesliga religousley and watch matches on TV all the time, I am spiritually inspired by Football and my virtual mentor is the great Pele whose signed picture hangs in my home office and during my professional career in every office I ever occupied.

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My wife and I travel around the world as you may have concluded by surfing the Zohar Web. My wife taught me to like Opera, Ballet, Theatre and Classical music and I taught her to like Football. We've been together to Wembley in London, San Siro in Milan, Olimpico in Rome, Camp Nau in Barcelona , Bernabau in Madrid the Bonboniera in Buenos Aires and the Maracana in Rio de Janeiro. My self I traveled from Toronto to Paris for less than 48 hours to watch the European Chamionship final at the Stade de France, I took my brother Motti from Israel to Istanbul to watch the European Championship match between AC Milan and Liverpool that to this day is considered by football eficionados as the best most exciting football match - ever where Liverpool came back from a 3;0 deficit at the half to win in penalty kicks after 120 minutes. My son and I who worked together and taveled to England on business went to key matches in Old Trafford, The Kop, Whie Heart Lane, Highbury, Upton Park. In 2014 my older son Mark, his son Zachary , my granddaughter Jaime and I went to the Mundial in Rio de Janeiro to ensure the continuity of football passion in the Zohar family. I have been an avid fan of  Manchester United  (and totally frustrated since the departure of Sir Alex Ferguson) and of Barcelona for their unique style of play featuring by far the best footballer of all times (may be at par with Pele) Lionel Messi. Did I say fanatic? 

 

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