Emotional PK before the match against Switzerland: Israel’s captain remembers an eight-year-old boy

class=”sc-29f61514-0 fwWrRV”>

It seems funny when Eli Dasa, captain and top scorer of the Israeli national team, stumbles through the catacombs of the small provincial stadium Pancho Arena in Felcsut with one shoe on his foot. Forgot shoe two? Broken? When he tells the story behind it with a children’s football shoe in his hand, your laughter immediately freezes.

‘This is Nave Soham’s shoe. An eight-year-old boy who was kidnapped along with seven family members during the Hamas attack in the Gaza Strip. Eli holds up the shoe. His voice breaks. “It is difficult for me to speak at this moment. None of you can imagine the story behind this shoe. The parental home burned to the ground. Nave’s left shoe is the only thing left. We are waiting for him.”

First the broken heart, now the shoe

The emotions under which the Israeli team is currently playing are enormous. “It’s not easy,” coach Alon Hazan said. “Because these games don’t just belong to us. They are part of our entire country. Even the first step before the first match in Kosovo was extremely difficult. Because you can’t put that aside. But we have to be able to deal with the emotions.” He keeps taking breaks. He always falters.

The media conference has now ended. Players and coaches are in the locker room. The only thing left on the stage is this little shoe. If the symbol of the Israelis in the 0-1 defeat in Pristina was the broken heart, then it is now this shoe.

Outside, the players have a shoe on their foot. One in hand. So they step onto the lawn of this monument that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán built in his immediate home country. With a wooden shelter that is reminiscent of the ice hockey temple in Davos or an opera house. But Israelis here do not have the freedom to think that way. They are just happy to have found this arena here, which offers them a home in exile – with the support of the large Jewish diaspora in Budapest. “If there is even one Jew here in the stadium, we will feel at home,” says Hazan.

Israel wants to go to the European Championship

And what will this Israeli team look like against Switzerland? Extremely difficult to predict. «We have the players from Maccabi Haifa and Tel Aviv, who played in the European Cup last week and will play the third match in seven days. And we have a few who have just been training for weeks,” says the trainer.

One thing is certain: the Israelis will be playing with only one shoe in their mind. Because they also want to join the euro. It would be the first time. “Our hearts will still burn,” says the coach. “We would be happy, also because we would make the Israelis happy.” But the most important thing would remain something else: bringing back the hostages.

Source : Blick