[Gilli]

The question is, what team.
Eyal has made it official today by saying he left the European football scene. However, he will not announce retirement from the game just yet and will be looking to sign with an Israeli team. We know Maccabi Tel Aviv have been linked with him over the last few weeks, and naturally Maccabi Haifa too. Where do you think he'll sign?

 

[Kappa21]

Come to Zafrinim Holon and get them out of relegation :nervous:

 

[Gilli]

He said Maccabi Haifa are his first option. But he wants to see a full stadium everu home match. Another option is Maccabi Tel Aviv of course, he confirmed they did have some negotiations. Also, from what I gather Berkovic says he will not play football this season, but next season. He says he wants to be in full shape first.

 

[Mideast Mirage]

Actually I could see one reason for Berkovic to sign with Maccabi Haifa and that is the possibility to play next year in the Champions League. That is something that he never got to do in 9 years in Europe. Of course there is no guarantee that Haifa will play in the CL but there is a chance. In any case it will be interesting to see if Haifa even are interested in signing him since they would have to change their entire team set up. A lot of changes might also happen to Maccabi Haifa between now and next year.

 

[Gilli]

I agree. Playing in the CL is something Eyal would like to add to his career very much. And as far as Roni Levi is concerned he says he is interested in Eyal Berkovic. But that depends whether he stays in Haifa next season or not...

 

[Dave11]

I don't think that Eyal is still good.
All the last year he was sitting on the bench of Pompy.

 

[Arik1983]

NEVER CHANGE A WINNING TEAM!!

for haifa it would be better not to sign berkovic !
m.haifa has got a very good midfield with tal, rosso, boccoli, badir and so on..
so there is no place for a player like berkovic.

 

[Mideast Mirage]

We are not talking about this year but about next season. All those players that you named may not even play for Maccabi Haifa next year.

 

[Gilli]

I've now added a poll. Where is Eyal going to sign?

 

[Kappa21]

Beitar Yerushalim :d

 

[berko]

Well he has all the reasons to sign for Maccabi Haifa. First, it was his boyhood club, he has identification with the fans; second, Maccabi Haifa wil be the champions this year which will give them a possibilty to play in the CL; third, Haifa is the team who could pay him the better wages; fourth, Eyal wants to end his career in a good style to be remembered in a good form and nothing better to play at Maccabi Haifa.

I voted for that Berkovic will sign at Maccabi Haifa, but since we are dealing with him things are unpredictable, besides he had problems with the management and Shahar, so this could be something in the path of the contact. Even though for Haifa it would be very lucrative since the fans would pack the stadium to see him and merchandising would rise.

If Berkovic wants full stadiums then he should go to Beitar Jerusalem it doesn't matter the situation they are always there.

 

[Gilli]

We can take one team from the list. Maccabi Haifa have officially announced they will not sign Eyal Berkovic. So the race for Berkovic reopens and Maccabi Tel Aviv seems to be top favourite now.

 

[MSAshdod]

my vote goes to Maccabi Tel Aviv. Maccabi Haifa is right in not signing him. They'd simply lose the efficiency of their current team.

 

[Kappa21]

Would he want to play for a little less than 500,000 if he gets the team high?

 

[Gilli]

Would he want to play for a little less than 500,000 if he gets the team high?

The rumours said he was asking for 400,000, he claims half of this salary would've been used to buy free season tickets to kids. But it was too much for Shachar, additionally Eyal had several past differences with Shachar and Haifa (regarding his transfer fee to Southampton, he even sued Shachar) so this might have helped the decision not to sign Eyal too.
Maccabi Tel Aviv are Eyal's favorite at the moment but they're not rushing it either. Maybe he'll return to Europe after all, who knows.

 

[Kappa21]

I heard Hapoel Tel Aviv might be intrested in Berkovic..

but still..why doesn't eyal just play somewhere abroad like in belgium or in spain...

 

[monte]

Maybe a strange question but is Berkovic related to ex Yugo in any way and if so - what part? Or is he originally from Russia (or any other ex Soviet state for that matter?)

 

[squelch]

Monte I have been guessing 'Berkovic' is an adaptation of 'Brkovic'...but just a guess...

 

[Mideast Mirage]

Actually as far as I know his family is from Rumania. In the past BTW I think they used to spell the name Berkovitz. I have a theory that they changed the spelling to Berkovic when he went to England due to the influence of all the ex-Yugo players who were signed at that time in the various European leagues. Does anyone have any other info on the matter?

 

[Gilli]

Maybe a strange question but is Berkovic related to ex Yugo in any way and if so - what part? Or is he originally from Russia (or any other ex Soviet state for that matter?)

Like MM said, Eyal has Romanian origins.

Actually as far as I know his family is from Rumania. In the past BTW I think they used to spell the name Berkovitz. I have a theory that they changed the spelling to Berkovic when he went to England due to the influence of all the ex-Yugo players who were signed at that time in the various European leagues. Does anyone have any other info on the matter?

That's interesting. I never heard it but we have plenty of players in Israel whose surname ends in the same sound. Davidovich, Leibovich, etc. Yet we use 'ch' and not 'c', I also believe Berkovic is the 'English' version of his name, I am not sure if it's related, but I am pretty sure he would've been called Berkovich if he stayed in Israel.

Anyway some interesting quotes, Eyal Berkovic was interviewed by Avi Ratzon tonight and you know Eyal, once he talks he says everything on his mind without thinking too much. So the major headline Eyal supplied is that Shachar lied by saying the decision taken not to sign Eyal was partly financial. Eyal said he asked for a 400k wage as his first offer but Haifa never came back with an offer of their own. Eyal also claims Roni Levi and Marko Balbul (coach and assistant coach) of Haifa talked to him on the same day he made that offer and both told him they are very interested to see him play for Haifa, which also suits what Levi said after the Toto Cup semi final 2 weeks ago. So in other words Eyal feels Shachar did it because of revenge for that lawsuit. He also said that 'if money is the problem, it'll be solved in 2 minutes'. Eli Driks was there and said that the only issue regarding Eyal is financial, and if his demands meet theirs, there is no reason he won't be playing for Maccabi next season (berko must be happy now ). Eyal sounds very angry and bitter and also mentioned Israel doesn't know to appreciate their football stars, and finally he also said he recieved 2 offers from Europe Yesterday and named Strasbourg as one of the teams. So there you have it, that's Eyal Berkovic for you. A great footballer, but not such a great person.