Itzhak Schneor

Schneor was born on December 11, 1925, in Częstochowa, Poland.[2] He immigrated to the Land of Israel at the age of eight and began playing football with Beitar Tel Aviv at fourteen.[1] He subsequently moved to the club’s city rival, Maccabi Tel Aviv.[1]

Schneor won the 1942 Eretz Israel Cup with Beitar Tel Aviv, which defeated Maccabi Haifa 12–1 in the final.[2] As a Maccabi Tel Aviv player during the 1940s and 1950s, he won four league championships as well as State Cup titles.[1][2]

His international playing career extended from 1948 to 1956.[2] He made his debut for Israel against the United States in New York and played his final international against South Vietnam at the 1956 Asian Cup in Hong Kong.[2] He also captained Israel in its 1956 matches against the Soviet Union.[2]

In 1957, Schneor served as player-coach of Maccabi Jaffa and led the club to the State Cup final, where it lost 2–1 to Hapoel Petah Tikva.[2] He retired from playing at thirty-three to concentrate on coaching.[1] His coaching career encompassed twelve teams.[2] He later guided the Armored Corps representative team to the 1964 IDF championship with a 5–0 victory over the Air Force.[2]

Schneor’s first league championship as a coach came with Hakoah Ramat Gan in 1965.[1] He subsequently won the championship with Maccabi Tel Aviv in 1972 and Hapoel Tel Aviv in 1988, giving him titles with three different clubs.[1] Alongside his coaching work, he earned his living as a bus driver.[3]

From 1988 to 1992, Schneor coached Israel’s national team jointly with Yaakov Grundman; the partnership became known as “Sh.G.”[2][3] After eliminating Australia, Israel advanced to the qualification playoff for the 1990 World Cup against Colombia.[2][3] Israel lost the away leg 1–0 and drew the return match 0–0 in Ramat Gan, allowing Colombia to advance.[2][3] Schneor’s senior national-team coaching record comprised six wins, four draws, and five losses; his record with Israel’s youth team was five wins, five draws, and eight losses.[3]

Former player Shimon Tchernukha remembered Schneor as “like a father,” recalling that Schneor, himself a defender, taught him the position and helped him progress in football.[1] At Schneor’s funeral, broadcaster Danny Dvorin recalled him as an admired player for Nordia before Israel’s establishment and later for Beitar Tel Aviv and Maccabi Tel Aviv.[1]

Schneor’s son-in-law, coach Ze’ev Zeltzer, contrasted his demanding coaching manner with his gentleness in private life: “As a coach, many knew him as a tough person … Outside the field he was the complete opposite, soft as butter. He could not bear to see a grandchild cry.”[1]

Schneor regularly swam at Gordon Pool in Tel Aviv.[3] About a month before his death, he broke his pelvis in a fall, underwent surgery, and did not recover.[3] His health had weakened over the preceding year, and he was hospitalized during his final days.[1] He died on November 20, 2011.[3]

Accounts of Schneor’s pre-state underground activities include a family recollection given by Zeltzer at his funeral.[1] Zeltzer said Schneor had participated in operations including the bombing of a British headquarters in Jaffa and a robbery of safes at Tzrifin, adding that some operations remained classified.[1] Sport1 separately described Schneor as an Irgun fighter and attributed to him participation in an attack on British police in Jaffa and a payroll-train robbery.[2] The reports differ in some details, and the specific operations are presented as attributed accounts rather than independently corroborated findings.[1][2]