Quite a few connotations arise when an Israeli football fan hears the name “Ben Reichert“. Most of them are negative, but lately it seems that the one who was marked as one of the most promising players in Israeli football, and since then failed to live up to expectations, is in a good place in his career. He returned to Hapoel Ramat Hasharon, the place where he broke out, became one of the leaders of the team and even started to coach in the youth department In a conversation with Yigal Goldstein, Reichert looks back on the stormy moments in his career and is sure: he still has a place in the Premier League.
Ben, how are you feeling in high school?
“As everyone knows, it’s a place where I grew up, a kind of warm home. I feel comfortable, I’m good, they support me, they accept me the way I am. It’s a place that makes me feel really good, that reminds me of good things, that I was successful in two terms. Thoughts always remain Positivity and good energy. I don’t think it’s a place without pressure, because at Laumit every game you don’t win, there’s pressure. A place with pressure can bring out good things from me. It’s a place that demands you, that has certain expectations. I didn’t necessarily choose Ramsh because it’s a place No expectations or no pressure.”
Describe what happened to you this summer?
“As time goes by, the summer becomes less interesting. It used to be much more raw and intriguing. This summer I decided to close Barma Sh before all the noise in the Hash, to return to a place where I was successful and can bounce me forward. This year no offers came from the Premier League, I didn’t wait too long either. The way the season ended, I closed the terms at level S. These are people I know who over the years have become like family. I didn’t wait for offers. I have a family to support, children and first of all it was important to me to maintain my financial security and my good place in football.”
Starting a coaching career
“I joined the youth department, I’m starting a coaching course soon. I don’t know if this will be my career, but right now it’s an act that I thought could promote me and help me. Working with children is something I connect with. It sounds funny, but it’s a place I found A lot of patience and that’s where I find my calm and fun. It’s something I decided to take on and enjoy.”
What would Reichert the coach say to Reichert the boy?
“I needed someone to guide me and catch me at a young age. To be close with him every step of the way. But it’s not too late and come back to the front of the stage at a late age. I never rule it out.”
Your move from Maccabi Tel Aviv to Hapoel Tel Aviv is still the biggest story of your career
“To this day, it doesn’t leave me. It haunts me everywhere I go. It’s something I went through in my career, which hasn’t left me. The price tag and the media transition. If you take me back, it’s something that actually enhanced my name. I don’t see anything wrong with it . The fact that I was burned and it was hard for me to recover, these are facts. I didn’t have an easy time with it, I’m still dealing with it. It’s a kind of scar. All day long you get mad about it. ‘Why didn’t you do that’. I try to put it behind me and move forward The career continues and there is no option to turn the wheel back.”
You connected with Dodo Dahan from a young age
“I connected with him from the age of 21, when I was in Hapoel Tel Aviv. The move from Maccabi Tel Aviv was made by Avi Nemani. At the age of 21… here I am saying this so that my mother and father will hear me, I didn’t listen to anyone. I was in a kind of childhood frenzy. I started making good money when I was released from the army and there was no one to direct me. I earned sums that do not make sense to earn at this age. From the 5,000 NIS I used to earn as a soldier, I jumped to tens of thousands in a short period of time. In Maccabi Tel Aviv I was a soldier, in Hapoel Tel Aviv I lost several hundred thousand because of the disbandment that I have not seen until today. But it is a kind of scar that is there.”
Did the money stop you from playing football?
“You can say that. I didn’t have a girlfriend who shaped me, I wasn’t with my wife… She fixed my head. She holds me tight, there’s nowhere to run. All day I would hang out with friends, go out, hang out. My head wasn’t In football. Add to that the whole million euros and the move from Po’el to Maccabi Tel Aviv, all the pressures… it didn’t do any good. Then there was the move to Belgium, which did not turn out to be successful.”
What was the most unnecessary purchase in that period?
“I would buy clothes every few days, as if every day I had to wear a different fashion. I would go crazy. I admit it and I regret a lot of things. It’s money that could have been for my children. I didn’t value money too much. I admit it, It’s hard for me to this day. I have conversations with my wife about how she wasn’t with me in those moments. She tells me ‘why didn’t I get to be part of the celebration?’. These are past moments, I’ve left them behind. Money comes, money goes, health is important more than everything”.
What happened in Belgium?
“I landed in Belgium and I didn’t even know which team I was going to sign with. I was in Vegas with friends and I got a message from Uncle Dehan – ‘When are you coming back?’ His assistant arrived and I didn’t see his uncle all day. I asked assistant Tom ‘where is his uncle?’ And he told me that he was in meetings all day. I only met with his uncle in the evening and I don’t know who the team is and I don’t know anything. He tells me, ‘Well, I signed you a three-year contract with the Belgian Cup holder.’ I asked him when all this happened? The next day it was closed and we left Let’s go. The problem was, which I realized after a few months, that his uncle brought me through the professional manager, without the coach’s knowledge. They didn’t tell me that the coach has been on the job for 10 years and has a contract for another six years. This is something we don’t know here. The coach was less connected to my style of play , we got along less. I was in the second team. After six months of not playing… a man who doesn’t play, he’s sick. It’s hard for me to sit on the sidelines. There are moments that’s part of the game. I felt like I wasn’t getting the opportunity I deserved, so I decided to play at all costs. A chain of events of the questions began. Acre and Ashdod a year later. After that Ramesh for a few months and then KPS. There were beautiful times.”
Are you still a Hapoel Tel Aviv fan?
“I was a Hapoel Tel Aviv fan in my youth. It’s not a secret. Everyone saw it at the end. When you start playing the adults, you stop for sympathy. I am a professional soccer player, I must play for my team at all costs, no matter who against, even if it is against Hapoel Tel Aviv. Coming to Hapoel Tel Aviv was a dream come true. We went through the liquidation, so it wasn’t as successful as I had dreamed, but the very fact that I arrived at Hapoel Tel Aviv closed the circle for me.”
What do you say about the current Hapoel Tel Aviv?
“It reminds me a little of the complications that existed back then, except that apparently buyers are coming. For us, it was far from buyers. The group was on the verge of dissolution and the situation was a catastrophe. As I see Hapoel Tel Aviv this year, it does not look good.”
Was there talk about your return to Hapoel Tel Aviv?
“There were talks and explorations several times, but it did not progress. Something was missing. Maybe a coach who would like me, not just management. I have something to contribute to Hapoel Tel Aviv, unequivocally, and also to the Premier League. In the professional section, there is nothing to argue about. I can play in the Premier League for fun. I have a lot to contribute. What brought me to the National League were things I took on, I did them. I realized I made mistakes along the way. I don’t avoid them, but I’m still here.”
What mistakes are you talking about?
“There are two Ben Reicherts, one on the field and one off it. Off the field, I can testify that I am a different person. I am much calmer, I am a good friend. In the dressing room I give everything to the team. On the field the temperament rises and sometimes I don’t get the oxygen to my head and such So what happens… I’ve been medicated for years. Ever since I’ve known myself. It helps me be calmer, both on and off the field. I take pills every day. Psychiatric drugs. Anti-impulsive, anti-nervous outbursts, mood swings. Few The times it happened to me outside the field. The field is a place where I open up too much. It happens to me in games, that right when the whistle comes, I go down and feel sorry for myself if I spoke badly to one of the players against me. I made a rule for myself, that I respect whoever is standing in front of me Until recently, I spoke badly to the players against me… I would take it hard and come home and send a message… if it was a certain player or a staff member, and I would ask for forgiveness from the bottom of my heart because it would sit on me. On the field I don’t see it . Game over, I’m breathing, realizing I did something wrong. It would have finished me, so to get it out, I’d apologize and not one to say I apologized. I don’t like you This is me. I didn’t control it before, today I try harder to control it. I have tools that I try to instill in myself. It doesn’t always work and there are sometimes ‘pucks’ and falls. I also get up from it. I deal with it. In addition, I had a rhinoplasty. This is called partition analysis. My wife ‘won’ snoring. She doesn’t sleep well at night. After long deliberations, I decided to go for surgery, I put it together and I went back to breathing through my nose. My nose is open. It changes lives. The oxygen did not reach the brain.”
Some people would collapse from the things you went through in your career
“You can say that. I’ve developed an elephant’s skin, but I can’t say that it doesn’t reach me. Talkbacks, comments, commentaries. I read, I’ve read all my life. It’s something that always attracts me. They told me not to read. These are people who don’t understand football , who sit at home and dream of being in my place. I would love to harm myself. Most of the talkbacks are usually negative. I’ve already stopped taking it to heart. Even if you don’t know me deeply, the stigma was attached to me. Everything that was on the keyboard was written about me.”
They claim that the Israeli market is poor. Why is there no interest in you in the Premier League?
“That’s a good question. There are a lot of players who are in between in this league. It’s easy to say that the market is poor, they say it every year. There are good youth departments in Israel, but the development of the players is not at a high level. In the teams in the middle of the table, money is invested in 13-14 players And the budgets for the other players are decreasing. More soldiers are being taken because of the budget limit. I’m in a place where I have to support the family, two children, a wife. I don’t see myself losing money to play in the Premier League. I can’t afford it where I’m at. I might stay In the national team until the end of my career. If someone gives me another chance in the Premier League, is he ‘grabbing me by the balls’ with money? It’s not there. I’m in a good place. If it has to happen, it will happen with the right money.”
The polygraph test in Ashdod
“It was surprising. We were at the bottom and in trouble of relegation. I was on loan there from Belgium. I came one morning to training and Noni, one of Jackie’s came to me… and I really didn’t know anything… and he told me that if it bothers me if I ask to go for a test Polygraph. I said to him ‘What?’. I was surprised. I couldn’t put together what. I told him yes. I have nothing to hide, I sleep well at night. I want to revive my career, so I don’t get a sticker. First thing I went to do a polygraph , both personally and where they sent me. I was asked questions about game bias. Part of the affair happened because of my touching my hand which caused a penalty in the game we won against KS. I passed the polygraph to clear my name. I continued to play in Ashdod and two weeks after that I scored a goal for Teddy and we stayed in the league.”
You also went to the polygraph in Bnei Yehuda, this time on your own behalf
“I can’t tell myself what was there. I saw it in loops after that. I was mainly disappointed in myself. I saw myself on TV and said to myself, ‘What were you thinking?’. The ball wasn’t there. That penalty was not whistled, even though it should have been whistled. There were I have difficult days after that. I can’t pinpoint a reason. Oxygen didn’t reach my brain and I lost myself, and these were the results. In this case, for myself, so that they wouldn’t talk about me and stick something on me… I said to myself, ‘Let’s do a polygraph.’ This is before it came from Barak Abramov. I cleared my name right away. It’s not easy to go through that. The fact that a message went out to the media that a player is suspicious, it’s not just a coincidence, but that too has passed.”
What do you say about the phenomenon of selling games?
“I haven’t seen the investigation. It doesn’t sound crazy to me. There were cases, but I don’t think it reached the major leagues. In my opinion. I can’t go to sleep at night thinking about things like this. It’s crazy, I don’t know how people did things like this. I I don’t know how real the investigation is and it has a source and a basis. They never proved it and never managed to prove it. Sometimes it looks bad… suddenly 0:6 to a team that has nothing to play for. These are things that happened in football and unfortunately will happen.”
If you could go back to a point in your career and do something different, what would you do?
“I’ve been making stops since I was 19. I was in a good place and then the buzzing and transitions started. If I was in that place then, I would have acted differently. To leave a team like Maccabi Tel Aviv then, it wasn’t right. So I wanted to go lead a team. I was promised a five-year contract, but promises are separate and reality is separate. On paper it looked good, but it turned out to be one big disaster.”
The famous photo that was circulated on social networks
“I did damage to my family. They came to my little sister and we wouldn’t know… not a pleasant thing at all. The photo was leaked from the WhatsApp group of the players. Only after I realized the impact of it, and we also received fines, everyone who was present in the photo and who took the photo – Barak Badash. It was During Jordi Cruyff’s time”.
How do you plan your future?
“It’s hard to think about it. I still have time. You have to think ahead. I started a coaching course and I’m starting to study additionally. I can’t point to something I want to do in the future, I might continue the business with my father. Only when you think about it, you Sinking in. It’s hard for me to say I’ll be a coach, but right now I’m having fun in the youth department.”
do you still like football
“I love football, but I take it more in proportion than I used to. Also because of what I went through, also because I realized that family is a supreme value and for me before football. It used to not be like that. Football managed me and while I was doing things. I was not interested in any Another thing. Today I take care of my family, whether it’s in football or outside of it.”
Do you have a message for those who want to play football?
“Every player at the beginning of his career needs someone to guide him, whether it’s mentally or financially. Football is not an easy world, you experience fewer successes and more failures. Most careers are like that. As a 20-21-year-old boy, it’s not always in your mind. Even if you You experience success, you are tempted by entertainment and friends. You have to concentrate on football because these are years that will never come back. Invest in one thing and don’t take your eyes off it.”
A hobby besides football?
“Give me my Sony and I don’t need more than that.”
Will you stay at the same level?
“Right now, yes. I need an offer that suits me both financially and from a senior league. I won’t run away from Ramesh so quickly. I’m in a comfortable and good place. Only an offer from the Premier League can change that.”
What will 2023 look like for you?
“I will be a calmer, quieter person. On the field I will occasionally jump, but this season I am calmer, in a good time. I hope to do happy things at level “S” and from there maybe advance.”
What song calms you down?
“I’m Ashkenazi, but Mizrahi suits me. I’m not looking for the calm. Give me Omar Adam, give me Hefala.”
