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Ya'akov "Yankele" Hodorov (
In 2006, Hodorov was awarded the Israel Prize for his contribution to sports, one of few sportspeople who received this honour. Several days before he was due to receive the prize he suffered a stroke and was unable to attend the ceremony. This stroke eventually led to his death several months later on New Year's Eve 2006 at the age of 79.
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
: יעקב חודורוב) (16 June 1927 – 31 December 2006) was an Israeli football goalkeeper
In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...
in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. He is one Israel's best goalkeepers of all time and the leading goalkeeper of his generation.
Football career
Hodorov started his football career at Maccabi Rishon LeZion at the age of 15. After a few years, he moved to local rival Hapoel Rishon LeZion, where he first got national recognition as the team reached the cup final in 1946. Shortly afterward he moved to Hapoel Tel Aviv, the club where he stayed for most of his career. At Hapoel Tel Aviv he won the Israeli league championship in 1957 and the Israeli state cup in 1960. Later he joined Hapoel Ramat Gan and won another league title in 1964, and afterward played at Shimshon Tel Aviv and ended his career withHapoel Holon
Hapoel Holon Basketball Club ( he, מועדון הכדורסל הפועל חולון), known for sponsorship reasons as Hapoel Atsmon Playgrounds Holon (), is a professional basketball club based in Holon, Israel. The team plays in the Israeli ...
, where he also had a short spell as coach.
He was 5'10 (1.78) feet tall and nicknamed "the Bird".
Hodorov made his debut for the national team
A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or a national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport.
The term is most commonly associated with team sports, for exa ...
in a friendly match against Cyprus
Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ge ...
in 1949, and for the next decade played in almost all international matches. He soon became the hero of the team that struggled against European opponents. He reached his peak in the latter half of the 1950s.
The most memorable match of his career was in 1958 FIFA World Cup qualification against Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...
at Cardiff
Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...
, in which he suffered a broken nose in a collision with Welsh striker John Charles
William John Charles (27 December 1931 – 21 February 2004) was a Welsh footballer who played as a centre-forward or as a centre-back. Best known for his first stint at Leeds United and Juventus, he was rated by many as the greatest all-ro ...
, but continued to play and made dozens of acrobatic saves.
Other notable matches were against USSR
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
at Ramat Gan Stadium
Ramat Gan Stadium ( he, אצטדיון רמת גן, ''Itztadion Ramat Gan'') is a football stadium in the Tel Aviv District city of Ramat Gan, Israel. It served as the national stadium of Israel until 2014.
Overview
Completed in 1951 and serving ...
in 1956 Olympic qualification, where he played with a broken finger, and Israel's sensational win over Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...
at Belgrade in 1960 Olympic qualification.
Hodorov received lucrative offers from several European professional clubs, including Arsenal FC
Arsenal Football Club, commonly referred to as Arsenal, is a professional football club based in Islington, London, England. Arsenal plays in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The club has won 13 league titles (incl ...
, but he turned them down and chose to play his entire career in the then-amateur Israeli league.
Awards and recognition
In 2006, Hodorov was awarded the Israel Prize for his contribution to sports, one of few sportspeople who received this honour. Several days before he was due to receive the prize he suffered a stroke and was unable to attend the ceremony. This stroke eventually led to his death several months later on New Year's Eve 2006 at the age of 79.
In popular culture
He is the last footballer (before repetition in the fade-out) to be mentioned inArik Einstein
Arieh Lieb "Arik" Einstein ( he, אָרִיק אַייְנְשְׁטֵייְן, ; 3 January 1939 – 26 November 2013) was an Israeli singer, actor, comedian and screenwriter. He was a pioneer of Israeli rock music and was named "the voice of Is ...
's song Ve'ele Shemot (these are the names) that repeats several times the text: "And we will finish at Hodorov".
See also
* List of Israel Prize recipientsReferences
1927 births 2006 deaths Israeli footballers Hapoel Rishon LeZion F.C. players Hapoel Tel Aviv F.C. players Hapoel Ramat Gan F.C. players Shimshon Tel Aviv F.C. players Israel international footballers Israel Prize in sport recipients Footballers from Rishon LeZion Footballers at the 1958 Asian Games 1956 AFC Asian Cup players 1960 AFC Asian Cup players Israeli people of Russian-Jewish descent Association football goalkeepers Asian Games competitors for Israel Israeli Football Hall of Fame inductees Israeli Footballer of the Year recipients {{Israel-footy-bio-stub