Footballing rabbis fail to win their Spurs
WHEN ZVI Gefen was 14, he was scouted by Tottenham Hotspur as a goalkeeper. His parents, however, would not let the club pursue its interest as “it wouldn’t help me to keep Shabbat”.
Sixteen years on, the development director for Aish in Manchester finally shared a pitch with a team of Spurs stars as he played for a Rabbis XI against a Legends team including Gary Doherty, Paul McVeigh, Tony Galvin, Justin Edinburgh, Andy Sinton, Clive Wilson and John Lacy at Barnet FC’s training complex.
And while it is not often that a goalkeeper on the wrong end of a 10-2 scoreline is one of the stars of the game, Rabbi Gefen pulled off some impressive athletic stops. Plus, there was the added satisfaction that the match, watched by a crowd of 200, raised over £25,000, through sponsorship, for the Laniado Hospital in Netanya.
“Clive Wilson said to me: ‘I’m going to tell my grandchildren I played against a team of rabbis,’” Rabbi Gefen said after the match, adding “Stuart Nethercott said we seemed fit but maybe he didn’t realise we were changing players the whole time.”
Former Spurs and Ireland winger Tony Galvin, meanwhile, told him that it was rare to face opponents who did not foul or swear.
Alex Nadler, a former academy player for Shrewsbury, Oldham and Rochdale, was the top performer for the 20-man rabbinical squad, laying on the pass for Pinchas Hackenbroch — senior rabbi at Woodside Park Synagogue — to slide in the rabbis’ first goal (Spurs had scored four by then).
The Rabbi, a lifelong Spurs supporter, was delighted with his goal.
“It kept us going and lifted our spirits. It was fantastic to hear the crowd cheering,” he said. “It brought back memories of the good old days in Maccabi football.
“It was great to see so many people from different communities come to watch the game,” Rabbi Hackenbroch added. “Sport is a brilliant way of breaking down barriers between the different sections of our community. I hope we use it more in the future.”
His children, who were among the crowd, “were pleased to see I hadn’t completely lost my touch,” while the comprehensive defeat was not disappointing. “We spend every day teaching and learning and speaking; they spend every day training and playing, so you wouldn’t expect anything less.
“We let in a few goals at the beginning from some basic errors because we were rusty. But once we got going, we gave them a run for their money. We’re looking forward to the rematch.”
When Rabbi Hackenbroch suggested to the Spurs players during the game that he was doing “pretty well for 42 years old”, Wilson responded: “Mate, I’m 54.”
The Legends were 6-1 up at half-time, with Ralf Little, the actor and sometime semi-professional footballer, the standout performer.
Eliyahu Hibbert of The Boys Clubhouse netted for the rabbis soon after the interval and a generous late penalty was hit hard towards the corner by Doron Birnbaum, who is on the Hasmonean High School staff. However, Spurs keeper Gareth Howells plunged to his right to save brilliantly.
Rabbi Birnbaum said the game was harder than he had anticipated. “They are class. The pace wasn’t there but their positioning was fantastic. They knew exactly where they were meant to be.”
Gary Liss, another Hasmonean staff member, was impressed by the com- munication between the Spurs players. “I thought they’d win,” he said. “But I hoped we’d put on a respectable performance. I think we did that.”
Tony Galvin told me it was rare to face opponents who did not foul or swear’
Rabbi Zvi Gefen