Lifestyle/Community
Big birthday clash for Avram Grant
One cannot help but admire the tenacity of Israeli soccer coach Avram Grant. I wonder whether earlier in his career he would have seen himself coaching Ghana in the African Cup of Nations.
JACK MILNER
After beating Bafana Bafana 2-1 in the final round robin stage, Ghana edged into the second round by having a head-to-head advantage over Algeria. In the quarterfinals Grant’s team scored an impressive 3-0 victory over Guinea to set up a semifinal clash with hosts Equatorial Guinea on Thursday, a day before his 60th birthday.
Born in Petach Tikvah, as a youngster Grant played for Hapoel Petach Tikvah junior team but did not have much of a senior career. In fact, he took over the role of coaching the same junior team in 1972, a role he held until 1986 when he was handed the senior team.
He did wonders with a team that was battling to stay afloat and in the first couple of years he managed to get them back into the First Division. By 1991 Petach Tikvah were title contenders.
After that he coached Maccabi Tel Aviv and Maccabi Haifa before being offered the job of Israel’s national coach, a position he held from 2002 to 2005.
Grant moved to England in 2006 to become technical director of Portsmouth before being appointed director of football at Chelsea in July 2007. Two months later, in September 2007, following the departure of José Mourinho, Grant was appointed manager of Chelsea.
Despite steering the team into the Champions League final, the League Cup final and contesting the Premier League title to the last day, his contract was terminated at the end of the season.
He had promised owner Roman Abramovitch some silverware and when he failed to deliver, the Russian boss was ruthless. Grant was one penalty kick away from winning the Champions League but to the shock of everyone, John Terry, kicking for the title, slipped and missed the goal completely and Manchester United went on to lift the Cup.
Grant returned to Portsmouth as director of football in October 2009 and was made manager the following month. After the club’s relegation to the Football League Championship, Grant resigned and, on June 3 2010, was appointed manager of West Ham United, a position he held until May 15, 2011, when he was sacked after the club was relegated to the Football League Championship.
During the 2012 European Championships in Ukraine and Poland, Grant, whose father was an Auschwitz survivor, accompanied a group of England’s soccer team to the death camp. Wayne Rooney, Joe Hart, national team manager, Leighton Baines, Theo Walcott, Andy Carroll, Jack Butland and Phil Jagielka, were given a tour of the camp by Grant, who lost 15 members of his family at the camp.
On January 13, 2012 Grant was named the new manager of Partizan Belgrade. As he was set to have his first match as manager of Partizan in a friendly against Sepahan Isfahan of Iran, the event was cancelled because Grant was Israeli.
They said the Iranian government did not recognise Israel as a country and referred to the government as the “Zionist regime”. Grant’s response was: “I never mixed politics with sports. I had worked with many Muslims while I was in England, and I made friends with many of them.”
After guiding Partizan to their fifth consecutive Serbian championship, Grant resigned on May 14, 2012.
At the end of November, with the African Cup of Nations fast approaching and only a temporary coach in control, Ghana appointed Grant to guide the national team. He signed a 27-month deal to take over from Maxwell Konadu, who had been in temporary charge since Kwesi Appiah left in September.
The Ghana Football Association gave Grant a target of “doing well” (whatever that may mean) at the upcoming tournament and to win the event two years later. GFA president Kwesi Nyantekyie told BBC Sport: “It would be unfair to ask a coach appointed only one month before a tournament to win the trophy.
“But he must do well and then the FA will assess his performance after the Nations Cup and determine whether he has done well or not.”
Grant is the 32nd head coach of the Black Stars. In that time they have also had three caretaker coaches. One would assume that by making at least the semis, Grant has done well enough to retain his position. If they go on to win, the Israeli, who has shrugged off so many anti-Semitic taunts in his career, will be a national hero.