On the Border by Shaul Adar

Author:Shaul Adar
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pitch Publishing Ltd
Published: 2022-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Eli Ohana, the exiled ‘king’ of Jerusalem, found himself in Mechelen, a provincial town in Belgium, without friends, family or adoring fans. The first months were lonely and hard. Ohana had to work on his fitness after playing in the slow Israeli league, get to know the town, the demands, a new home and life. ‘Aad de Mos, the Dutch manager, used to say to me that through the Cup Winners’ Cup I will get famous, it’s the only way,’ Ohana told me in an interview for Shem Hamisehak magazine. ‘He said it from the first moment. Mechelen was well known in Belgium but they wanted to make a name for themselves in Europe.’

In the first round of the 1987/88 European Cup Winners’ Cup, Mechelen beat Dinamo Bucharest 1-0 and 2-0 over two legs. Ohana played well in the league, was becoming more and more popular and felt at home. In the second round they drew Scottish side St Mirren, who weren’t a household name but still a tough British opponent. ‘The first game at home ended in a boring 0-0 draw. In the second leg I scored two goals, my first in Europe and it was fantastic. We made it into the last 16 and now we were taken seriously,’ Ohana said.

Ohana by then was the star of the team, although playing with Erwin Koeman, part of the Netherlands’ victorious 1988 European Championship team, and a string of local national team players such as the famous goalkeeper Michel Preud’homme and Lei Clijsters (father of tennis player Kim). ‘L’etoile de Malines’ was born.

Dinamo Minsk were the next opponents, in the middle of the winter. In Mechelen, Ohana and his colleagues won 1-0 and headed to what’s today’s Belarusian capital. He said:

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