Pini Bellili is currently away from Israeli football. Hapoel Tel Aviv’s past player and anyone who has had an impressive career in Turkey, tried the coaching field, was involved, but he quickly understood how things were going on here. “I was told that maybe many coaches are afraid of my name, that I will steal the show, that I will take They have the limelight, “he says in a special interview with ONE.
Lilly opens his heart and addresses why he is not currently involved in Israeli football. Talking about the state of Israeli football, about Hapoel Tel Aviv, he also refers to the curses he suffered because his son plays in Maccabi Tel Aviv. Lilly talked about his dream, revealing the story behind the letter to Abraham Grant when he played for the Israeli national team.
Pini Bellili, how are you doing these days?
“Trying to combine family life with business. I spend 23 hours with the kids, the rest of the time trying to talk to anyone about business and trying to move forward. ”
You disappeared a bit from the view.
“Don’t know if it’s because of me or not. Yes, I left the football world and went into the business world. ”
Why aren’t you in the soccer world anymore?
“I tried to analyze it and think but I had no answer. Then I was told that maybe a lot of coaches were afraid of my name, that I would steal the show, that I would take the limelight to them. To me the artist is not the most interesting, it is not my ambition. I was a pioneer coach in Hapoel Tel Aviv when Eyal Berkowitz took me. Then new owners came and fired them all, and I went to Tobruk to be a pioneering youth coach, and for a few months I was a coach in Ashdod. ”
Pini Bellili (Radad Jabara)
“It’s not my motto, not where I aim and not where I want to be. If I come back to football it’s just being a pioneering coach, lately they asked me if I wanted to come back and be interested in me, but didn’t want to come back to me. I don’t think I’m scary, I just want to help and contribute from the knowledge I gained all my time in football and don’t give it to me, so I’m not chasing anyone. Good for me in my corner. I won’t say that it doesn’t tickle me to help the kids. ”
Are you saying there is anti-Finnish night in Israeli football?
“It hurt at first because I come from a good place. I do want to help the kids and the players in general, and didn’t give me a real opportunity and answers. It sounds like I’m crying, but I’m talking about a positive place to do it. We didn’t even get to talk about money. ”
Israeli football loses that Finny Lilly is not there?
“Israeli football is losing a lot of past players who are not there, unfortunately,”
Do you think you are not appreciated? You played for 7 years in Turkey, you had a good career. At Hapoel Tel Aviv you had beautiful years.
“I did a thing or two in football. I want to come from the cleanest and loving place, with no combinations and no connections. From the age of 18 I did not have a court reporter or a reporter I gave him something to write down on me. I got where I came from, with no special connections. If I had a good agent or personal reporter I would have given news to, I might have reached higher levels, but I’m not in this place. I just want to say I can’t help the kids and unfortunately there are other past players who can’t do that. ”
How about Israeli football?
“It’s a very difficult question. Each decade is different from the other. The saddest point, except for the past year and a half, is that only Maccabi Tel Aviv and Maccabi Haifa have home players. In the last decade, I haven’t seen a lot of home players like today, most players playing 4-5 years in the same team. Today players pass every six months or a year. To say it’s okay or not? Anyone who does what he thinks and walks with his soul, hopes it will work out in the end. Maybe the Corona will do something to the football, which doesn’t look like such big gaps from the Top 4 and the other teams, and then the players will be equal. ”
Pini Belli in the stands (Itai Cohen)
And what do you think of what happens today in Tel Aviv?
“For the past 6-7 years, the club has been replacing owners every few years, replacing coaches and players. Unable to advance in such a way, we saw Alona Barkat leading a championship for three consecutive seasons, and if the league was not interrupted and everything was going on, then Maccabi Tel Aviv would again go in that direction. The road wins everything. You can’t change players and coaches and managers all the time, until players get used to the coach and vice versa, everything changes and seasons end. I hope all homeowners understand that if they come, they need to build a way and a youth department to bring home-made players instead of paying hundreds of thousands of dollars on foreign players. ”
Your son is playing Maccabi and Hapoel fans have not been quiet about it.
“I trained him from age 3 on a project I belonged to, along with another 20-30 children. At the age of 4-5, he got to work and finally didn’t want to be in the team. I didn’t want to argue with him. When the season started this year, his friends were in Maccabi Tel Aviv and he wanted to go. Anyone who knows me knows that I am only Hapoel Tel Aviv, I have always followed her to the games, acting in my heart and soul. The boy, 6, wanted to go to Maccabi. Not sure he wants to play football so you can’t know what the next few years will be. Like there’s a painting and judo department, it’s a department for him and that’s what he wants. ”
You have received offensive comments.
“Yes, people have lost proportions. People cursed me and the boy too. He is a little small, can’t read yet and doesn’t know who’s to his right and who’s to his left and that’s a shame. But today it is over. The child will do what he wants and every parent decides to do what he wants with his child. ”
You recently shared your goalie in a derby uniform for a derby game and managed to catch fans.
“A month before the corona eruption was the last derby, the day before I took the kid to training. I arrived in Kiryat Shalom and suddenly I saw 200-300 Maccabi Tel Aviv fans. I didn’t understand what the fuss was about, and then I realized that there was a derby tomorrow and I didn’t know whether to get out of the car that wouldn’t curse me when he saw and heard everything. I got out of the car like a big one, nobody cursed, we went through it, it belongs to history. It’s about kids, it’s another generation. If he were a player it would be another 10-12 years. Let’s relax, take everything in proportion and enjoy what’s there ”
“We are all united in the current state for free love. My dream in the hottest games, like Derby, Tel Aviv vs. Betar Jerusalem, the Sakhnin vs. Betar Jerusalem, maybe fans were sitting next to each other. Let’s end with the free hatred. In the present situation, the strongest, richest and most powerful man is equal among all equal because everyone is sitting at home, all the world in the same situation. Let’s stop the wars. Everyone is committed to helping each other during the most difficult time, I wish it would end and continue the same way and not return to all the mess and what was before. Maybe that’s one of the good things that happened from Corona. ”
Hapoel Tel Aviv fans (Shahar Gross)
Looking at the career, are you complete with her? Would you do things differently?
“I wish I could remember some of the experiences in the dressing room before big games. I can’t remember everything. If you put me back I would have taken the same steps, I regret nothing, didn’t think I would have done anything else. I lived 4 years minus 40 degrees, today in retrospect it seems ridiculous and abnormal to me, but it was an experience for that time and age. Everything that happens is true at that time. What is true right now is not two years ago and not another 3 years. ”
What is the most memorable moment in your career?
“There were a lot of good moments. My first trophy when I was lifted on my shoulders after winning, when we won the championship, the doubles season, the success in Europe, the games against Parma and Chelsea, the derby, the exiles against Ashdod and Kfar Saba, were many moments and it is hard for me to say what I remember most. Also, it’s hard for me to say who the greatest player I’ve played with. Yossi Bennyon, Shalom Hope, and many other good players played with me, so I can’t say that I don’t want to hurt anyone. Everyone helped me during his time. There are things that are hard to touch on specifically. ”
Abraham Grant (Dawn of Gross)
Fifteen years ago, when you were in the Israeli national team, you wrote a letter about Abraham Grant published in Yedioth Ahronoth, which included the words: “Manipulations, smiles on the one hand and a knife to the back on the other, he will never tell you what he really means.” What do you have to say about it today?
“It’s over and over. Even then 10-15 years ago when we met we would laugh about it, everyone threw two bites on it. I was 25, I didn’t think so much and I didn’t have my head like today. Don’t know if I would do it again. I was not a friend of Abraham and I will not be his friend, when I meet him we do connect, talk about it and go through a topic. ”
Did you write the letter or did you write it for you?
“We will not return to this conflict again. I wrote it and that’s it. I am elsewhere. I was a 25-year-old, it belongs to history. I have one dream that all fans will sit next to each other and not curse, enough fans have cursed Shimon Mizrahi and Maccabi curse fans, or anyone who curses the other. You have to stop with this period, that’s one of the important things. We are without football, and today every fan will ask if they return the football he will sit quietly he will agree, and once he returns he will curse again. So we waited for the games, we talked a lot about who would win and who would play. Let’s concentrate on this. ”
Lots of rumors say that Shahar Ben-Ami, your lawyer at the time, wrote the letter.
“I consulted at dawn but I wrote it. Most importantly, we arranged things, we are mature people. We both know who wrote it, just me and Abraham. ”
You grew and matured. When you were young, would you be in Stutnik, if you weren’t, would you go further?
“Stutnik is also a good thing. There are things I wouldn’t do, like the fights and messes in the field. I would jump on Uncle Evat and Eric Benadu, maybe I would give it up, but that’s what made me, it was my craziness. I was then told that I would also run off the field, had a passion and I loved football. Today, the players don’t run on the field either, it’s not that they have no passion or love, it’s a different generation. That’s what made me and took me forward, the madness and the madness. The biggest players, too, are Stutniks, such as Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Mario Ballotelli, Leo Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. In the end, when you do, listen to the coach, do the work on the field, and you don’t hurt the team, that’s fine. One of my coaches in Turkey said: ‘Do whatever you want. When you’re on the field, I examine you. Anyone can do whatever you want. Be good, play. ”
Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Reuters)
In Turkey give you more respect than in Israel?
“I stopped looking for respect. In the last 4 years, I have moved into the business world, where there are other laws and a different game. It’s different thinking, different strategies, thinking is different. Neither respect nor ego, put everything aside. In football, on the other hand, there is ego and respect. Deal with everything that is and enjoy everything. ”
Do you still have Turkish citizenship?
“Yes. Both me and the children. ”
Is there a chance to improve relations between countries?
“I wish it was up to me, I have a lot of friends there who are Erdogan friends. Everyone knows I fly a lot there, we sit and laugh and talk about the conflict quite a bit. If it was up to me, it would be okay for me yesterday. It’s not things that depend on me. ”
Where do you think the relationship is progressing?
“We have recently seen a drastic increase in surveys and communications on flights to Turkey. The “Bride from Istanbul” series brought back good relations. People consult me where to travel in Turkey. The last year or two was fine, before it was a little more tense. Anyone flying to Turkey was not afraid of the attitude toward the Israelis. I was at Rosh Hashana with 70 people in Antalya, a little over a month ago I was with another 10-12 people, we walked around the city, in the markets, spoke to no one, respected everyone. It was fun and an experience. ”
What do you wish for the end?
“Health for all. That we will all be back to normal quickly and that everyone will come out healthy from the crisis. ”
