Over three monthsDoron Leidner Not officially played. Since the 13.6, when the team played in Reykjavik, Iceland, and the defender was replaced at halftime, he did not get playing minutes. All this before he left Hapoel Tel Aviv for Olympiakos for two million euros (by the way, part of the amount that was supposed to come in on 15.9 has not yet been transferred) and gave everyone the feeling that the left defender of the Israeli national team was found.
The beginning in Greece conveyed something else. The professional manager of the Greeks, former player Christian Karambo, picked Leidner up from the airport. The 20-year-old defender did not get to see the French play even once. He didn’t know who the person was who came to pick him up. “I’m here with the team manager, I think, a guy named Christian,” he said to Idan Ben Abu’s agent, who started laughing. “You are with the great Karambo, the professional manager. He was a huge player.”
Leidner’s talent is indisputable. In the trio of brakes, there are those who would say that he is even better, because his defensive game is lacking, and we got an example of that against Iceland. His mistake caused a substitution than expected and the entry of San Menachem. Magen Haifa is yellowed, and regardless, Leidner is a favorite with Alon Hazan and Yossi Benyon. “This is the next defender. Olympiakos is just a stepping stone on the way to a bigger club,” said the two in closed conversations.
Last week, the last day to close the window, Karambo He called Leidner to his office. “There is an offer from Aris Thessaloniki, who asked to ask you until the end of the season. I will not stand in your way, but it is certain that the next coach who comes will put more trust in you,” the Frenchman told him. Leidner, feeling the love from the professional manager, ultimately decided to stay and fight.
“I didn’t rule out the move to Aris, but in things that didn’t depend on me. It didn’t happen, but everything is for the best,” he says in his first and exclusive interview with the Sports Channel following the move to Olympiakos, “I knew where I was going and I knew that I wouldn’t start right away in the lineup like everyone thought. Sometimes It starts a little more difficult. I believe that my time will come and I will fit in there.”
The arrival of the legendary defender of Real Madrid, Marcelo, should not interfere either. “He is supposed to play as a defender or a midfielder, not necessarily a left defender,” said Leidner to his teammates who also asked him about the attitude of the former Real Madrid star. “He is super nice, looks at everyone at eye level,” he added.
Give an example
“There was one training session that I had just landed from Israel because I was here regarding the passport, and Marcelo signed that day and flew in from Brazil and we did training on both sides. In the middle of the training session I told him, ‘I’m excited, it’s like a dream’. He asked her, ‘You know who Tony is, right? ? Tony Kroos’. I answered, ‘Obviously, how can I not recognize him?’. He showed me how Kroos stops a ball. These are things I never dreamed would happen, that such a player would come and talk to me. He told me, ‘Anything you need, send me a message’ and not only He, Versalico also explains and directs. If you had said three years ago that I would be sitting with Marcelo in the same dressing room, I would have laughed.”
Within two weeks Leidner will receive the Romanian passport after swearing allegiance to the Romanian embassy in Israel, and the last barrier has been removed. The laws in Greece are different. Players from the academy and local youngsters must be in the squad, and foreigners without a passport are in trouble, and so it was with the defender.
“I thought I would get my passport faster,” he explained to the team’s professional team, “in the last few weeks I increased my minutes and training units to come prepared, and I’m ready for the mission against Albania. I’m in good shape and I feel it in training in Israel as well.”
In the first training session at Shafiim, Alon Hazan took him to talk on the grass. “I want you to continue the movement even without the ball after you give a pass, constantly be in motion,” the coach told him, which indicates his desire to let him start on Saturday in the stadium that until recently was his home. “I follow Hapoel Tel Aviv and hope they get back on the right track, because so far it doesn’t look good,” says Ex Hadomim.
Leidner knows that he will no longer fly to Malta. Shalon Hazan will inform him, Liel Abda and Aden Kartsev that they will come down to help the young team and will not go to the training game on Tuesday. Unlike the previous coach who did not count him in Olympiakos, now there is a new coach, who also knows Yossi Benyon intimately. A good game against Albania will also help him in the Greek team, and with a win, then maybe Banyon will also throw in a kind word.
“There are some shortcomings, but everyone who is here are the best players that were selected and I believe that it can be done,” says Leidner, “Yossi Benyon and Alon Hazan give us a lot of peace and professionalism, and in general I feel that something good is happening in Israeli football, even in our senior team , both in the youth and in the young women. We are no longer afraid to look the national teams in the eye. We saw it in the under-19 championship and also in the games of the young women against Poland and Germany and of course in the adult game. I think we can already make the leap. We beat Albania away, and we will do it Also in front of our audience in Bloomfield.”
