Eran Zahavi - Biography

Eran Zahavi (born 25 July 1987 in Rishon LeZion) is an Israeli football midfielder. He currently plays for Serie A club Palermo and Israel national football team.

Club career

Hapoel Tel Aviv

In the 2009-10 season, Hapoel Tel Aviv won the Israel State Cup and the championship title after a dramatic match against the fierce rival Beitar Jerusalem in which Zahavi scored at the 92nd minute of extra time. Zahavi was reported to have garnered interest from clubs in Belgium during the 2009-10 season. Zahavi has a French passport which would mean that he would not count as a foreigner in many European leagues. This interest may increase in the months to come as Zahavi scored two goals against Portuguese team S.L. Benfica in a glorious 3-0 victory in the group stage of the 2010-11 UEFA Champions League on November 24th, 2010, and scored a bicycle kick goal against Olympique Lyonnais on December 7th, 2010. Zahavi is known for his exaltation on the important and big games (Such as goal for Irony Nir that saved them at the second division at the last minute of the league; championship goal at the last minute of the league; a goal against Red Bull Zalsburg that gave hapoel the card for the Champions League; a winner in 2 Derbis and at the "game of the season" against Macabee Haifa; a Bycicle kick goal at the Israeli Cup semi final), he is a true winner and also known for his great finishing. Zahavi scored 27 goals and assisted 20 more while playing 91 games for Hapoel Tel Aviv.

In the 2010/2011 season became the top assister of the Israeli championship, giving 13 assists during the season.

Palermo

In June 2011, it was reported that Zahavi have signed a 5-years deal with the Italian Serie A club, Palermo, for €1.675 million. It is the second Israeli footballer history in Italy after Tal Banin; the first of Sicilian. He debuted with the rosanero on 28 July against Thun in Europa League. He made his debut in Serie A against Atalanta on 18 September, and scored his first goal three days later, only 15 seconds after the kick-off in a home game against Cagliari where he was included as a starter for the first time under new head coach Devis Mangia.

Honours

• Israel State Cup (2):
  • 2010, 2011

• Israeli Premier League (1):
  • 2009-10

Statistics

|- |2006||Hapoel Tel Aviv||Ligat ha'Al||0||0||0||0||2||0||0||0||2||0 |- |2007||rowspan="2"|Ironi Nir Ramat HaSharon||rowspan="2"|Liga Leumit||17||2||1||0||0||0||0||0||18||2 |- |2007–08||28||7||2||1||2||2||0||0||32||10 |- |2008–09||rowspan="3"|Hapoel Tel Aviv||rowspan="3"|Ligat ha'Al||28||7||1||0||7||4||0||0||36||11 |- |2009–10||33||11||5||1||6||1||9||0||53||13 |- |2010–11||30||9||4||1||1||1||12||5||46||15 |- 136||36||13||3||18||8||21||5||171||49 |-

|- |2011–12||Palermo||Serie A||4||1||0||0||–||–||2||0||6||1 |- 140||37||4||1||18||8||23||5||177||48

Footnotes

External links

• IFA official website