The label “next talent” is such that it is difficult to get rid of it and sometimes this weight actually leads to the complete opposite. We have received such stories in our Israeli football quite a bit and of course we will receive more in the future, but also with this understanding that has formed in our heads, nevertheless the fact thatAmit Zanti Left at age 24 without a team, surprisingly. The player who grew up in Ashdod and from there came to Maccabi Haifa at a young age, went through a sharp rise in his not many career years but also a steep decline, one that eventually led him last month to leave Bnei Yehuda after a joint decision and a media confrontation between the parties.
Bnei Yehuda has crashed in the past year. This is beyond the results, to the fact that it is closer to the first division than to promotion to the Premier League or the change of coaches, but the most basic things just do not work. A team built with an exceptional investment in relation to the national and brought in players of the size of the Premier League, found itself without backing from the angry crowd and with players who want to go. One such is Zanti, who explicitly did not want to be with the team nationally, but got what he wanted only after half a season.
What did not work along the way?
Zanti, who was at the Ashdod academy that raised quite a few Israeli talents, came to the youth department of Maccabi Haifa at the age of 13 and, like many, was marked as one who would reach the senior team. This mark did not come out of nowhere, as the agile winger with the special dribble caught the eyes of the club members, and not for nothing did he make his senior team debut in July 2016, when he was only 18, in relegation against Noma Callio in the Europa League qualifiers.
Half a year later, Zanti made his league debut in a 2-0 loss to Hapoel Beer Sheva and played a total of 15 games in the Premier League in the 2016/17 season. At the same time, he also played with the youth team and helped it qualify for the Youth Champions League playoffs. At the beginning of the 2018/19 season, Zanti was a partner in ten league games for Maccabi Haifa, and in January of that season he was loaned to Bnei Yehuda, where he played until last month for three years.
At the end of 2018/19, he returned to Haifa, but not for long because as part of the Yuval Ashkenazi and Dolev Haziza deal, the Greens transferred his card to Bnei Yehuda and he signed for four years. From the moment he joined the Oranges Zanti got the credit and also showed good ability. During his career in Orange he scored 19 goals in all competitions and was a partner in big moments alongside low points, but they were not even close to the low points that came this season.
In his first season at Bnei Yehuda Zanti, he was still a partner in an exciting victory in the state cup, after a victory in a duel of decisive kicks against Maccabi Netanya. Last season he was a key player on the team, but failed to help it survive in the Premier League. Last summer everything changed. Once the team was relegated to the sub-league, there was also a deterioration between the parties.
Did not want to be there
The collapse of Bnei Yehuda in the past year has also gone hand in hand with the saga between the club and Zanti and his career has taken an unusual turn. Last August, the winger expressed his desire to leave the team, when he claimed to Yossi Aboksis, among other things, that he did not want to play in the national league. Aboksis agreed to restrain himself and told the player to open a new page with him, but Zanti claimed: I will not play for a team that is in the national league. Even in a meeting with Barak Abramov Zanti he did not relent and asked to leave.
In response, Bnei Yehuda sent a scathing letter against the player’s behavior, in which she demanded that he return the grant money he received due to his signing for the current season (NIS 250,000), and also explicitly clarified to him that he would not be released from the team. Among other things, Bnei Yehuda’s letter to the actor stated: “You said you ‘would work in real estate and not be here.’ Lead to an explosion.and this happened five months after the same letter.
Even before he was officially released from the club, Zanti was ‘washed away’ by owner Barak Abramov, who as part of a difficult conversation he had with the players over the bad results, came out against the seniors and among other things told Zanti: “You are not this year. loose. I do not want to see you anymore. ” Indeed, the actor did not stay beyond that.
“He is not problematic despite the image. The problem is in the head ”
There can be many reasons why Zanti found himself at the age of 24 without a team, but bottom line, it’s a fact that he of course has a part in it too. A source in Israeli football who knows the winger well talks in conversation ONE about the chain of events. “We always marked him as a great talent, even in the youth they talked about him, but something in the transition to the adult group did not go well,” he said. “With Guy Luzon, he did not get along at first with Maccabi Haifa. The Dutch team that arrived actually let him play, but after that it was more his conduct. Make no mistake, he is not problematic at all, this is the image that comes out of him, but he is really not problematic. He is a professional who works hard, is intelligent at a high level, but the thing is that he has the thought ‘I am the star’, that is what hurt him. “
“His family also gives him the feeling that he is a kind of ‘Israeli Ronaldo’ even when he was a player in his youth. In terms of training and personal training he is a professional. He’s not the quiet actor Style Neta Lavie, but not really a neighborhood. Yes works hard. I think the attitude that ‘I am the star and the best’ is a problem that hurts him. There is no such thing as a lack of training for him. At the time he had some discipline problem with Mark Valiente in the coaching of Maccabi Haifa, there were arguments and people asked how a young player dares to answer the coach at all. At a certain point, Haifa was looking for the opportunity to make a deal for him, the possibility came with Haziza and Ashkenazi and he left. “
As mentioned, the relationship between Zanti and the people of Bnei Yehuda has been murky in recent months. The same source goes on to say: “The problem is more in the conduct. Do not tell a coach not to play nationally, certainly not a senior coach like Abacus. This is a coach who tomorrow can coach at a place like Maccabi Tel Aviv or the national team, and yet he reached the national team. This is the problematic that is being talked about by Zanti. In terms of professionalism, you can not say he is overlapping or something, he does not miss training, works hard, but probably it is not enough in football today. Look at Jordan Shoa, the talent is not enough and does not give a stamp of success. Maor Levy and Muhammad Abu Fani when they were teenagers may not have been stars, but they have personality and character and that is why they are also adults. Pioneers usually do not reach the senior level at Maccabi Haifa, it is more difficult. The numbers did not lead them to the first team even though they scored dozens of goals in the season. On the other hand, those with the character were able to integrate into the adults. “
Zanti found a problem. The player recently started training with Bnei Lem’s Maccabi Netanya to keep fit, but will not be able to sign with them until the summer. Under the constitution, a player left without a team after the summer window ending in September can join any club on the assumption that he is a free agent but only until January. In the period between the winter and summer window – there can be no seals.
“This is actually Zanti’s biggest problem, he’s in a serious trap,” says the same source. He was not allowed to give up Bnei Yehuda which was a good place for him. His conduct has led to him being without a team and not playing until the summer it is very significant. In the end, the stars of youth are not the stars of adults. In the big groups it is difficult to make the transition between youth and adults, it is a deep abyss. In these positions in Maccabi Haifa and Maccabi there are foreigners for half a million euros. It is almost impossible to integrate as a young Israeli. “
“He has it in his legs, but he does not have it in his head”
The one who still knows Zanti and his family very well is the Haifa commentator Itzik Aharonovich, Who lived next to them in Atlit and was close to the family. In a conversation with ONE he talks about the character of the winger and the warning lights that were there before. “He is a great talent. Three years ago, when he was at Maccabi Haifa, I came to their home, they lived on my street, I talked to both Amit and his parents. I said he must be given a mental trainer. Otherwise with all the talent he has he will not get anywhere. “The father was angry with me when I said that at first.”
He then moved to the center of the country after the trade with Haziza and Ashkenazi. You see he can do great things in any team in Israel and also in Haifa did. Before the age of 18 he played in Europe with Maccabi Haifa, with Roni Levy he played against Noma Kalio and missed Pendel and was good in the game. He is a player with excellent ball control, excellent dribble, he has natural and good speed. He knows how to cook goals and also knows how to score. His problem is that he is not arranged with himself. He can get two yellows in a few minutes and be sent off, it happened to him twice at Maccabi Haifa. I would tell him to pay attention to these things. I told him he was making unnecessary fouls and he was sent off because of that. “
Aharonovitch goes on to emphasize: “His father took him too far and set him high goals to go very far. I remember there were pictures of Ronaldo in his room. He held on to himself and his father also had great thoughts about his son. The talent is still there and he is still young. All his future ahead of him, is an extraordinary talent with wonderful abilities. It did not work out within the framework of Maccabi Haifa and even now in Bnei Yehuda it did not work out. He holds himself rightly because he has it in his legs, but he does not have it in his head. This mental trainer is important for every athlete in the world. So when I told them five years ago people did not know what it was, I told them to spend a few pounds on a mental trainer, I offered them a human being too ”.
What happened in Bnei Yehuda?
“He did very beautiful things in Bnei Yehuda. It’s not that he failed, but I warned in advance that this would happen. He has enough more time, he’s young. I believe he can still break out. If there is a coach like Bnei Lem who believes in him, then he knows him from the youth departments and even when he was a child. He worked with the actors at those ages. He can go back to Bnei Yehuda, they are not so good that they could have given him up so easily. He really is a golden boy, a good boy. Need mental training and that’s all. “Today, in my opinion, every player must have a mental coach, because this side of sports and especially of football is huge.”
Why are the attacking players who star in youth not recreating in adulthood?
Haifa has always been dominant in youth, but what suits youth does not suit adults. Sean Weissman also played in a very aggressive style as one striker who was not pampered and ran to the territories and cooked. Muhammad Awad was a key striker who scored easily in the youth because there you can only play on the occasion because the level of the brakes is not the level that the Premier League has. Today there is no striker in the senior teams who gets the ball just for the occasion. If we take the noble Omar as an example, he is a unique player and there are not many of them. To brake and connect is easier to succeed in this transition between youth and adulthood. A team like Maccabi Haifa plays when it has an opponent in front of it with ten players behind a ball, not everyone can bring themselves to do so. ”