monte said:
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.
Mideast Mirage said:
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.