This is not how Idan Vared imagined the separation from Hapoel Tel Aviv. The 33-year-old midfielder signed in 2021 with the aim of becoming a mentor for the talented youngsters who grew up in the team, but left after a season and a half in which he played very little and mainly received signals that he was not wanted at the club. Even though he is closer to the end of his career than the beginning, Vared hopes that the new chapter in Hapoel Petah Tikva from the national team will lead him back to where he thinks he belongs – the Premier League.
- The full interview will be broadcast on “Open Square”
“The signing with Hapoel PT was confirmed after the VAR, it wasn’t at the last second,” Ward explained the delay in releasing the official announcement. “I’m happy, happy. I already had a script in my head that I stay at Hapoel Tel Aviv, but in the last week or two I had a good feeling. Everyone knows what I gave up and what I did to move to a team, the most important thing for me is to come to training and have fun and play football.”
Vared went on to refer to the period in red: “Unfortunately, in the summer and now things happened that I can’t say and I had no control over them. Everyone will do what’s best for them, if that’s what they chose to do then fine. I’m not a child, I’m 34 years old and it’s important for me to come with a smile Every morning and feel as smooth as I’ve felt all my life except for this season.”
“I gave up a lot of money,” continued Vared. “Almost for everything, in fact, for the salaries from February to May. I took a small amount. I’m not crying about it. They came to me in the summer and told me to leave. I said, ‘Why?’, they told me it was a matter of money. So I said I would reduce my salary, That I would not give up being part of such a club. If I had gotten a chance then there would have been no problem, but I didn’t get a chance.”
When asked if they worked on him in Hapoel Tel Aviv, he answered: “I have been in the field and in our area for nearly 15 years, I don’t take anything personally, I won’t be offended. They didn’t work on me, it’s business. In the end, they have a certain budget, I’m not angry.”
Vared reiterated: “If we go back a bit, last summer, a year and a half ago, there was a mess with Beitar and the move was involuntary. I came to a huge club that has been failing for 7-8 years. The two owners came to me and told me take the club, lead it, we will make a top playoff and we will go to Europe. And that’s what we did. In the summer they changed everything, the whole skeleton was no longer there, they replaced nearly 15 players and I am one of them. In the end you must have a way and a foundation. In the second year, I thought we would be in 3-4 places because there is a good skeleton, in practice this did not happen.”
“They asked me to come help, but there’s a problem with money. I took a pay cut, but I didn’t play, I didn’t even have a chance to fail. I didn’t get it. They told me, ‘Go make a mess, get an interview.’ All my life I didn’t have agents or Close associates, my family don’t come on the radio to talk, I don’t make posts. I believe that in the end everything is decided on the grass. Every minute on the grass I gave everything, but there are things out of my control – and what was in my control, I did. They also lost because I didn’t play and of course me too “.
Ward continued: “I didn’t come to Hapoel Tel Aviv with the standard of a scorer either, I came in a different niche. When I played it did happen, we were a step away from Europe, but this season something was missing. I could help. The absurdity is that I could get a chance and the crowd was crazy that I would play, but in the end I played for 4-5 minutes. It’s disappointing. There was a period of time when I was a team player in Hapoel, until February, and we were in 3-4 places. Obviously I have to give more goals and assists, but I think the crowd really liked me and really appreciated that I gave everything every minute. I played close to 400 minutes in a calendar year, that’s not me, I can’t be a part of that.”
“Even if you sign with Maccabi Haifa, Beitar Jerusalem or abroad there is a risk, you can’t know what will happen,” continued the new Hapoel Pat player. “But I’m not angry, I’m at peace with myself. I didn’t lose any practice, any game, I always gave 100%. The one that didn’t go and was unlucky. If you ask anyone, even now, they will tell you that I was a factor with everyone. Kobi Yaropa, Sloboden Drapich, Omer Buxenbaum. I’m always positive, arrive first, leave last, don’t believe in anything else.”
When asked what was his part in leaving, he answered: “In the end, I’m always to blame, in every step I take. Where do I take responsibility? I should have been much better, from August to February of last year. If I had numbers, everything would look different and I would be the vehicle.”
Vared also referred to the involvement of the Nisanov brothers, the owners of Hapoel Tel Aviv: “There is not too much talk, I had one conversation with them about professional matters. For example, at Maccabi Haifa I was close to Yankela Shahar and Uzi Mor, at Beitar I was fine with Eli Tabiv and Moshe Hogg. There was a history of landlords with whom I was on good terms, but here I hardly had a conversation. I am not offended, in Hapoel Tel Aviv there is all the conditions to succeed. There is talk that they are stingy and don’t pay, which is unpleasant, but I think that in terms of the complex and the conditions, I never once had anything bad to say.”
“In the summer I wondered about where I was,” Ward said. “We did something good last year, we were up all season, and suddenly in the summer Shai Elias, who is a home player, was upgraded to Hapoel B.S. So what are you showing the whole audience of this huge club with the titles, that you are less than them? I have no problem with a player going abroad like Doron Leidner and Osher Davide, that’s the essence, but a domestic player wants to be upgraded to Beer Sheva? I understood where I am. This whole club deserves better.”
“I’m not saying that with them it’s a smaller club, but that’s what I experienced,” the midfielder continued, talking about the Nisanovs. “I care less about what used to be, that there is negative talk about them, those who don’t do it aren’t wrong either. I don’t have anger towards them. I don’t know how, how much and why – but Hapoel Tel Aviv needs owners like Goldhar and Yankel’a, who will make it feel part of the top Israeli football. Right now it’s not that. Neighborhood behavior? With me, in the end yes. All along I had a relationship with them that wasn’t the best in the world, but not hate or poison.”
“Last year was a perfect puzzle, there was a good team with good, experienced guys. In the locker room there was a kind of derogatory word about the veterans, and this season they put the young people together and did them an injustice. Last year, every time they added someone young to the veterans. Once Usher Davida, once Doron Leidner, once Stav Lemkin. This season, I don’t know why they did it, but they put 6-7 young people in the lineup and it did them an injustice. And yet, even when I was young they accepted me, it’s important to give a supportive shoulder to all the young people. Score for the term in Hapoel? 5”.
When asked if Hapoel Tel Aviv is in danger of relegation, Vared said: “The gaps in the league, from fourth place and below, are very small – but there are teams weaker than it and I don’t think it is in tangible danger of relegation.”
Vared went on to refer to the signing with Hapoel PT and the return to Beitar Jerusalem. “Betar and I are a long and complex story,” he said. “I came to Betar despite other offers because I did want to be there, I was captain for five years and I had a good time. We all wanted this episode to be different and different, but in the end there are owners who manage the football and unfortunately that’s what happened.”
When asked if Beitar probed, he answered: “I saw Barak Abramov on vacation and we talked, but not about that. Always when I’m at a crossroads I get a wave of calls and messages, I think the story there doesn’t end. There is a happy ending in movies and series, everyone close to me has a fantasy that it will happen someday, maybe with a different hat. The whole audience and those who live the club know how much I did to be there and how much it was not up to me.”
About Hapoel PT, Vared said: “In this window, I had a lot of complaints. There were offers from the Premier League, and in the end I chose to go to a place where I can be a factor and a leader. I really connected with the team, the community and the project – which could be something huge. With such a crowd and such a glorious history, they deserve to be up in the Premier League. I think I made the right step, I felt like I had to be there.”
“The direction is the Premier League, but it won’t be easy,” stated Vared. “I haven’t been to the national league, I see it every Friday. I realized that it’s a crowded and difficult league, I have no idea what I’m going for, there is an expectation from the audience and from me that it will happen. They deserve to be in the Premier League. I realized how much of an audience Hapoel Pat has, I got a lot Petition messages, I have a vision of 12,000 people in the audience and promotion.”
