Nir Davidovich
Encyclopedia
Nir Davidovich is an Israeli
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

 goalkeeper who plays for Maccabi Haifa
Maccabi Haifa F.C.
Maccabi Haifa Football Club is an Israeli football team from the city of Haifa, a section of Maccabi Haifa sports club. The club has won 12 championships, 5 State Cups and 4 Toto Cups...

 football club and the Israeli national team
Israel national football team
The Israel national football team is the national football team of Israel, controlled by the Israel Football Association .Israel National Football is the direct successor of the Eretz Yisrael National Team during British Mandate...

.

Davidovich plays as the senior goalkeeper in the Israeli national team. Davidovich suffered from 3 serious injuries but managed to recover and lead Maccabi Haifa to its 8th championship, winning the MVP title. Davidovich played all of his career in Maccabi Haifa and considered a "symbol" of the club along with the veteran captain Yaniv Katan
Yaniv Katan
Yaniv Katan is an Israeli international football forward and winger. He is currently contracted to Maccabi Haifa.-Personal life:Katan is Jewish, grew up in Haifa most of his life and then moved to Tel Aviv shortly after his parents divorced. His parents are Iraqi immigrants who moved from Baghdad...

. Many talk about him as the successor of legendary goalkeeper Avi Ran
Avi Ran
Avi Ran was a goalkeeper at the Israeli football club Maccabi Haifa. Widely considered one of the greatest football players in Israel, he had a promising future which was cut short by a fatal accident.-Football career:...

, a Maccabi Haifa prodigy who died in a diving accident.

His father is Benjamin Davidovich
Benjamin Davidovich
Benjamin Davidovich was an Israeli goalkeeper who played for Maccabi Haifa. A Holocaust survivor, Davidovich arrived to Palestine and settled in Rishon leZion in 1945. His son, Nir, is often seen as a spitting image of his father and later progressed to become one of Maccabi Haifa's most iconic...

.

Personal data

  • Nickname: "The Octopus
    Octopus
    The octopus is a cephalopod mollusc of the order Octopoda. Octopuses have two eyes and four pairs of arms, and like other cephalopods they are bilaterally symmetric. An octopus has a hard beak, with its mouth at the center point of the arms...

    "
  • Birth Date: December 17, 1976.
  • Played in: Maccabi Haifa
    Maccabi Haifa F.C.
    Maccabi Haifa Football Club is an Israeli football team from the city of Haifa, a section of Maccabi Haifa sports club. The club has won 12 championships, 5 State Cups and 4 Toto Cups...

    .
  • First Appearance:
    • Domestic - November 4, 1995 versus Beitar Jerusalem.
    • International - February 18, 1998 versus Turkey
      Turkey national football team
      The Turkey national football team represents Turkey in association football and is controlled by the Turkish Football Federation, the governing body for football in Turkey. They are affiliated with UEFA...

      .
  • Number of appearances (as for Septenmer, 2011) at:
    • Israel national team - 51 (1 as captain
      Captain (sports)
      In team sports, a captain is a title given to a member of the team. The title is frequently honorary, but in some cases the captain may have significant responsibility for strategy and teamwork while the game is in progress on the field...

      ).
    • European competitions - 55.
    • Domestic league - 368.
    • Domestic cup - 39.
  • Height: 185 cm.
  • Weight: 85 kg.
  • Status: married to Avital, with three kids.
  • Honours: 7 championships, 2 Israeli cups, 3 Toto Cups, 1 MVP of the season.

Football career

  • Played in each age-class youth national team of Israel.
  • 1995: Promoted to senior team of Maccabi Haifa.
  • 1996: Gave outstanding performance when Maccabi Haifa kept a 0–0 against Hapoel Petah Tikva after 3 (!) "greens" were sent off.
  • 1997: Overcame veteran goalkeeper Bonni Ginzburg
    Bonni Ginzburg
    Ben-Zion "Bonni" Shabbtai Ginzburg is a former Israeli footballer, who played as a goalkeeper.Having played for 11 different clubs during his extensive career, he also collected 68 full international caps, the most for any player in his position in the country.-Club career:Ginzburg played for...

     to become MHFC senior goalkeeper.
  • 1998: First international appearance at Israel 4-0 victory over Turkey
    Turkey national football team
    The Turkey national football team represents Turkey in association football and is controlled by the Turkish Football Federation, the governing body for football in Turkey. They are affiliated with UEFA...

    .
  • 1998: Wins the Israeli cup after 2-0 victory over Hapoel Jerusalem.
  • 1998: Excels in 1-1 draw against French top football club Paris Saint-Germain.
  • 1999: Injured seriously in the crounch and missed the entire season.
  • 2000–2001: Won the championship with Maccabi Haifa, conceding only 28 goals (the lowest in that season).
  • 2001: Injured in his knee
    Knee
    The knee joint joins the thigh with the leg and consists of two articulations: one between the fibula and tibia, and one between the femur and patella. It is the largest joint in the human body and is very complicated. The knee is a mobile trocho-ginglymus , which permits flexion and extension as...

     in the match versus Spain
    Spain national football team
    The Spain national football team represents Spain in international association football and is controlled by the Royal Spanish Football Federation, the governing body for football in Spain. The current head coach is Vicente del Bosque...

    , where he kept the Israeli goal clean until he was replaced in half-time. http://www.wldcup.com/reports/2001Jun/20010606_8831_israel_spain.html,http://www.soccernet.com/worldcup/2000/20010606/reports/israel_spain_full.html
  • 2002: Missed most of the season because of his knee injury.
  • 2003: Recovered from knee injury and played the final matches in the league.
  • 2003: Excelled in MHFC 0:0 draw against Valencia
    Valencia CF
    Valencia Club de Fútbol is a Spanish football club based in Valencia, Spain. They play in La Liga and are one of the most successful and biggest clubs in Spanish Football and European Football. Valencia have won six La Liga titles, seven Copa del Rey trophies, two Fairs Cups which was the...

    . After his performance he received grades of 10 in the Israeli press (just seven players received grade of 10 in the history of the Israeli press) and was dubbed "The Octopus
    Octopus
    The octopus is a cephalopod mollusc of the order Octopoda. Octopuses have two eyes and four pairs of arms, and like other cephalopods they are bilaterally symmetric. An octopus has a hard beak, with its mouth at the center point of the arms...

    " by the Spanish press.
  • 2003–2004: Won the championship with Maccabi Haifa and chosen by player, press and coaches as the MVP
    Most Valuable Player
    In sports, a Most Valuable Player award is an honor typically bestowed upon the best performing player or players on a specific team, in an entire league, or for a particular contest or series of contests...

     of the season.
  • 2004: saves a penalty kick
    Penalty kick
    A penalty kick is a type of direct free kick in association football, taken from twelve yards out from goal and with only the goalkeeper of the defending team between the penalty taker and the goal.Penalty kicks are performed during normal play...

     as Israel beat Cyprus
    Cyprus national football team
    The Cyprus national football team represents Cyprus in association football and is controlled by the Cyprus Football Association, the governing body for football in Cyprus. Cyprus' home ground is the GSP Stadium in Nicosia and the current coach is Nikos Nioplias...

     2–1 in a 2006 FIFA World Cup
    2006 FIFA World Cup
    The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which won the right to host the event in July 2000. Teams representing 198 national football associations from all six...

     qualifier.
  • 2009: On April 19 Davidovich made his 300th league appearance in Maccabi Haifa.
  • 2009: First time in the UEFA Champions League
    UEFA Champions League
    The UEFA Champions League, known simply the Champions League and originally known as the European Champion Clubs' Cup or European Cup, is an annual international club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations since 1955 for the top football clubs in Europe. It...

     with Maccabi Haifa.
  • 2010: Davidovich and Maccabi Haifa conceded only 16 goals in 35 league games, breaking the national record of lowest average goals per games.

Career statistics

http://www.national-football-teams.com/v2/player.php?id=3407
|-
|1995–96||rowspan="15"|Maccabi Haifa
Maccabi Haifa F.C.
Maccabi Haifa Football Club is an Israeli football team from the city of Haifa, a section of Maccabi Haifa sports club. The club has won 12 championships, 5 State Cups and 4 Toto Cups...

||rowspan="4"|Liga Leumit||7||0||2||0||0||0||0||0||9||0|0
|-
|1996–97||17||0||3||0||0||0||0||0||20||0|0
|-
|1997–98||30||0||5||0||0||0||0||0||35||0|0
|-
|1998–99||26||0||0||0||0||0||8||0||34||0|0
|-
|1999–2000||rowspan="11"|Israeli Premier League||23||0||1||0||0||0||0||0||24||0|0
|-
|2000–01||38||0||4||0||0||0||3||0||45||0|0
|-
|2001–02||2||0||0||0||0||0||0||0||2||0|0
|-
|2002–03||3||0||0||0||0||0||0||0||3||0|0
|-
|2003–04||33||0||3||0||0||0||6||0||42||0|0
|-
|2004–05||18||0||0||0||0||0||4||0||22||0|0
|-
|2005–06||31||0||4||0||0||0||2||0||37||0|0
|-
|2006–07||23||0||6||0||0||0||12||0||41||0|0
|-
|2007–08||30||0||2||0||0||0||0||0||32||0|0
|-
|2008–09||22||0||5||0||0||0||0||0||28||0|0
|-
|2009–10
2009–10 Israeli Premier League
The 2009–10 Israeli Premier League was the 11th season since its introduction in 1999 and the 68th season of top-tier football in Israel. It began on 22 August 2009 and ended on 15 May 2010 with the last matches of the playoff round....

||35||0||2||0||0||0||12||0||49||0|0
389||0||39||0||0||0||47||0||474||0|0
389||0||39||0||0||0||47||0||474||0|0

Honours

  • Israeli Premier League (7):
    • 2000–01, 2001–02, 2003–04, 2004–05, 2005–06, 2006–07, 2008-09, 2010-11
  • State Cup
    Israel State Cup
    The State Cup , is a knockout cup competition in Israeli football, run by the Israeli Football Association.The State Cup was first held in 1927–28 as the Palestine Cup...

     (2):
    • 1995, 1998
  • Toto Cup
    Toto Cup
    The Toto Cup is an association football tournament that exists separately in the two highest divisions in Israel: the Premier League and Liga Leumit....

    (3):
    • 2002-03, 2005-06, 2007-08
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