Full name Barak Bakhar 2002–2004 Hapoel Petah Tikva 1998–2002 Hakoah Ramat Gan Height 1.84 m | Years Team Role Football player Place of birth Haifa, Israel Name Barak Bakhar | |
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Date of birth (1979-09-21) 21 September 1979 (age 36) Similar People Shir Tzedek, Elyaniv Barda, Maharan Radi, Maor Buzaglo, Elisha Levy | ||
Barak Bakhar (Hebrew: ברק בכר; born September 21, 1979) is an Israeli former football player and manager of Hapoel Beer Sheva.
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Biography
Bakhar's uncle was Rehavam Ze'evi.
Football career
After going through the ranks of the youth system of Neve Yosef, Bakhar transferred to Liga Artzit side, Hakoah Ramat Gan. After four seasons in the second tier of Israeli football, he made the jump to Hapoel Petah Tikva.
In 2004, Bakhar joined Liga Leumit side, Ironi Kiryat Shmona. He established himself in the starting line up on the right side of their defense and helped them gain promotion to Israeli Premier League, the highest tier of Israeli football. During the 2007–08 season, Bakhar played all but one league match for Kiryat Shmona, due to yellow card accumulation.
In October 2008, Bakhar was called up by national team manager, Dror Kashtan for the FIFA World Cup qualification matches against Luxembourg and Latvia. His call up was canceled though, being that he never completed his service in the IDF, a requirement of all Jewish players in order to represent Israel on the national side, and Eyal Meshumar was called up in his place.
Bakhar cited that the IDF did not suit him as to why he did not complete his service. He told Israeli Yedioth Ahronoth, "they wanted to send me to a combat unit in the armor corps." Additionally, Sport 5 pointed out that Bakhar was not match fit and was expected to undergo surgery soon. This in turn embarrassed the Israel Football Association that they had missed all these items before announcing the pool of players called in for the qualification matches Bakhar has pledged to do sherut leumi or any other kind of national service in order to be called up for future matches.
Managerial career
In October 3, 2012 he was appointed as the manager of Hapoel Ironi Kiryat Shmona. In May 14, 2015, he was sacked from the club. In the 2015-2016 season, he was appointed of manager of Hapoel Be'er Sheva. He got Be'er Sheva to win the Israeli League for the first time in forty years after a 3-1 win against Bnei Sachnin. By winning the league, Be'er got in the UEFA Champions League for the first time and will start in the second qualifying round. He got Be'er Sheva into the third qualifying round of 2016-2017 UEFA Champions League in a 3-2 win on aggregate against FC Sheriff Tiraspol. Then, he got Be'er Sheva secured a Europa League group stage position by stunning Greek side Olympiacos F.C. 1-0 on aggregate, the furthest they ever reached. In the playoff qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League, Badkar's Be'er Sheva lost 5-4 on aggregate to Celtic despite winning 2-0 at Turner Stadium. In the 2016-2017 UEFA Europa League, Be'er Sheva made it in the round of 32 in the Europa League in 2nd place behind Sparta Prague in Group K by getting famous results against Southampton and Inter Milan. Bakhar also won the Toto Cup for Be'er Sheva on December 28, 2016 beating his former club Hapoel Ironi Kiryat Shmona 4-1.