Full name Nahum Stelmach Position Coach Role Footballer | Name Nahum Stelmach Years Team | |
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Date of birth (1936-07-19)July 19, 1936 Place of birth Petah Tikva, Mandate Palestine Date of death March 27, 1999(1999-03-27) (aged 62) Playing position Died March 27, 1999, Valencia, Spain | ||
Nahum Stelmach (Hebrew: נחום סטלמך; 1936–1999) was an Israeli footballer and manager.
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Biography
He was chosen third by Yediot Aharonot's greatest Israeli footballers. He made a name for himself as the leader of Hapoel Petah Tikva. At the height of his career in Hapoel Petah Tikva, Stelmach received offers to sign for Arsenal and Fenerbahçe but declined due to his loyalty to the team. He led his team to five national championships, four of them consecutive.
His most recognizable attribute was the quality of his headers, with which he scored most of his international goals. As a result he was commonly nicknamed "the golden head" in Israel.
He scored what was arguably his most famous goal for the Israeli national football team in an Olympic qualifier against The USSR, with Lev Yashin as goalkeeper at the Ramat Gan Stadium on 1956. Despite the fact that Israel lost the game 2:1 (his goal was a temporary equalizer), and that the game was not televised, that goal is widely considered a defining moment in the history of Israel's national team's early years.
Coach
He was the trainer of Hapoel Haifa in the 1970s, while training the international stars Yochanan Vollach and Itzhak Englander.