For several seasons, Hapoel Hadera’s midfielder, Sa’ar Padida, was marked as a great potential in Hapoel Haifa, but due to repeated injuries and lack of trust from the team, he was unable to make the big breakthrough. This season, the 26-year-old Fedida made the decision to move to the modest team from Sharon and even he did not expect how correct his decision would be.
Five league goals and one more assist made Fedida the leading player of the team this season together with Sammy Burrard and especially proved to him that he is capable of leading a team. Tonight (Monday, 8:30 p.m.), he and his team will host the champion Maccabi Haifa, the same team he played for in Media until he was a teenager.
You are meeting Maccabi Haifa, how much do you have in mind for the previous game?
“I think in the previous round we made a kind of bus in the box. We didn’t want to do it, but that’s how the game developed. I think we need to press higher in this game, because if we do that, we can steal the balls from them and get into situations. If we stay low As in the previous game, we will have trouble getting into situations. In the previous game, except for the penalty we received, we didn’t get into situations.”
Is there another trauma from missing the penalty?
“I don’t know if I should say trauma, but there is a feeling of missing out. You come to Sami Ofer against the best team in the country and you are a touch away from making a big draw. But there is nothing we can do, the loss actually did us good because we went on a streak of games in which we won.”
How do you see your season? You talk about staying, but closer to the top playoffs.
“I’ll tell you the truth. Every year they talk about Khedra being relegated, that it’s not strong enough. Every season since the team returned to the Premier League, it’s one step away from qualifying for the top playoffs and in the first season it even got there. With the existing squad we have, we’re making a season Huge. There is a bunch of men here, with the foreigners and the young people who get the opportunity, with his veterans Menashe, Ido and Dia. The initial goal is to stay in the league, but in football you never know and everything is fluid. If we are surprised, we will shut a lot of people’s mouths. Right now we are just looking at Staying and playing football is more beautiful.”
The change of coaches was loaded. Assaf Nemani surprised you when he resigned.
“The truth is that I didn’t think about it. In that training session I talked to Assaf about the game and he talked about the things that needed to be changed. There was a strange feeling after the loss to Ashdod because it came after many games in which we didn’t win, I experienced several changes of coaches in Hapoel Haifa. I only have good things To say about Assaf Nemani”.
What brings comfort?
“Menachem brings a lot of experience. I didn’t know him before and I really appreciate him because in these week and a half I learned a lot. Sometimes you need this change when things don’t go well and Menachem is the right man for this task. He fits the system like a glove and I believe we can do very beautiful things.”
Did you expect to explode like this this season?
“I’ll tell the truth, I had a very difficult summer mentally. The season ended, my contract at Hapoel Haifa ended and I didn’t know what would happen to me. I had offers from Hapoel Tel Aviv and Mashdod, but something inside me wanted to stay at Hapoel Haifa. Maybe because it’s a convenient place, close to home, they know me. Then Assaf Nemani called and drove me crazy to come. Coming to her room doesn’t sound the most ‘sexy’, but he told me to come and lead the group. As soon as he told me to come and lead and that it was all on me, I said that I am coming to this season and I will explode. I told Assaf at the beginning of the season: ‘Assaf, you fought for me like this and I will come and give everything for this club.'”
“I just talked to my dad last week and told him that I didn’t believe I would do such numbers. I did this season what I wanted to do all these years in Hapoel Haifa. I became more publicized this year and people talk about me more and more. Maybe I just didn’t believe in myself enough and that is also part of the story of my career. But this Fun, it gives you the hunger to conquer more and more.”
All this and more you experienced quite a few injuries.
“I suffer from bad luck. I had an injury and I came back – and I was injured again. Maybe without these injuries I would have had a few more numbers, but that’s part of football. You have to manage your body correctly, I don’t remember when this year I went up 100%. I went up for the club Because people here enter my heart. It is very important to me to give back to them for what they gave me.”
What didn’t work for you in previous years? What is the turning point this season?
“I think that in Hapoel Haifa they didn’t give me the confidence to lead and take on myself like in Hadera. Everyone says that I wasn’t a team player there, but I was. Maybe I didn’t give the numbers that were expected of me, but there I did more of the dirty work. There were players there who were more Stars like Turgeman and Maman, so they were at the front of the stage and they deserve it. I took more of the defensive part and in terms of numbers it was not reflected. I felt that I was the first to be replaced, that if we lose then I am the one who will leave the lineup. I felt that they could value me more.”
“Now, this season, I suddenly receive messages from fans that I will return, that I am missing. I think that now they appreciate me more, who understand that maybe they didn’t give me the confidence. I don’t have bad things to say about Hapoel Haifa because this is the place where I grew up and it gave me my first steps In the Premier League. But you grow up in a place where you want to break out of it and it didn’t happen that much there. I’m very happy about my choice to go to Hapoel Hadera.”
You actually grew up in Maccabi Haifa.
“That’s right. I was in Maccabi Haifa from the age of six to youth. I made it to the first season in youth, I played with players like Neta Lavie and Shawn Weissman. They didn’t count me that much and Abraham Avokert didn’t let me play. I was in the stands all season and I didn’t play a minute. I wanted in the middle of the season to go and they didn’t let me go. In the last game we played the last game we already knew we wouldn’t win the championship. They didn’t let me play and let boy players play before me. My father took it to heart and waited outside the field for Abukert and they almost fought. That’s where my path at Maccabi Haifa ended. I was loaned to Hapoel Haifa In the following season and after that I completely left Maccabi Haifa.”
But what didn’t work in Hapoel Haifa later? What was the lack of appreciation?
“Let’s start from the beginning. I went up to the seniors at Hapoel Haifa, Eli Cohen was the coach. I started the season, had an excellent pre-season and returned to the youth team at the same time and we were relegated. I took it hard, I started the season with Hapoel Haifa (the cup season). Klinger didn’t really give me To play, I came to the fields and sat in the stands. A year later I decided not to stay and told my father that it would not change. I went to the loan season in Rishon LeZion.”
And what’s going on there?
“You come from the Premier League and think you’re going to be a star in the National League. Nothing went well for me, I played a game or two and scored an own goal. I got injured and was out for half a season. The season is over and you’re not playing in the National League, you say to yourself what will you do now? I took a vacation of Two weeks with my brother to Thailand and I wanted to clear my head.”
“I had thoughts of maybe I should stop playing football? What am I doing wrong? I thought everything would come easily to me. But this is my turning point in my career because I told myself that if I don’t play in the national team either, then I have to take care of myself. Maybe something is wrong with me Not okay and I thought everything would come easily. I made the change in my head. I told myself that I would fight for my place in Hapoel Haifa.”
And then you return to Hapoel Haifa again.
“I came to training, I had a good start and I injured my quadriceps again. I told myself that I couldn’t handle another injury and that I would completely delete it from the rotation. I played for a month and a half with a tear. We returned from the camp, I went out again for a month of rest and even when I came back I didn’t really play. The turning point came Shasradal, Gal Aral and more Several were injured. They put me as a right back for the first time in my career. Later I returned to my position under the striker, against Ashdod. I scored a goal from 30 meters, I celebrated and cried and my whole family cried in the stands. Since then I have not left the team, I upgraded my contract and became a player who shuffles.”
Have you worked with a mentalist?
“Yes, for six months, in Hapoel Haifa. I always had thoughts in my head of maybe I’m not good enough, etc. This year I made this change and said to myself: ‘You don’t get into the articles, you don’t look at what they say about you.’ That’s why I came To a place like Hadera that gives you peace. Even in less good games, they don’t lower your confidence, you don’t make faces at you or take you out of the lineup like they did to me in previous years. You know what confidence is. When there is no confidence, even a player like Ronaldo has a hard time.”
You also grew up with a brother who is a football player.
“My brother Rotem is a goalkeeper and today plays in colleges in the USA. We would go to training together, we went to graduate school together at Hapoel Haifa and he would always see from the outside and give me the good word and the feedback. It’s funny, because when I was still playing in the youth of Maccabi Haifa and he was in Hapoel Haifa, I scored against him and the whole family was in the stands.”
How much did the name Saar Padida accompany you? Due to the similarity to the name of the actor who played Yehuda Levy in “Champion”?
“It has accompanied me for years to this day. They stop me and say: “Is that you from the champion?”. When I was a child, they came to me for training at Maccabi Haifa with Guy Pines’ team and made an article about it. They interviewed me, my father and Yehuda Levy. Today is already They know me as Saar Fedida who plays in the Premier League, but they will always talk about it. They will say that Yehuda Levy looks better (laughs).”
Did you get to talk to Yehuda?
“The truth is, no. After my debut goal in the Premier League a few years ago, he uploaded a video congratulating me.”
What are the goals next?
“The biggest dream is to go abroad. I had an offer from the Latvian vice-champion in January, but I said I wanted to stay in her room until the end of the season. To do as many numbers as possible and help the team because I don’t like to leave a team in the middle, especially a club like Hadera that entered my heart.”
“I have goals that are a little more than Latvia and I think I am capable of more without underestimating. I have a French passport so I will not be considered a foreigner in Europe. My idea and that of my agent Shahar Greenberg was to move to her room and follow the path made by players like Maksim Plekoshchenko, Eliel Peretz and Muhammad Abu Fanny, who progressed a lot through this club. There is something about this club.”
Has this season improved the faith of Saar who did not believe in himself?
“Unequivocally. I proved to myself that I can lead a team and that I know what I’m worth. I became quieter, I had periods in Hapoel Haifa when I was lost in thought. Now I believe in myself that I can lead a team in the Premier League.”