Marco Balbul

Balbul was born on 13 July 1967.[1] He joined Maccabi Haifa at age nine and progressed through the club’s youth teams before making 217 league appearances in two senior spells.[6][2] He later returned to the club in several coaching roles.[1]

Balbul played primarily as a defender and spent almost all of his senior playing career, from 1986 until his retirement in 2002, at Maccabi Haifa.[2] His only two seasons away from the club came in the late 1990s, when Avram Grant brought him to Maccabi Tel Aviv.[7] When Grant subsequently moved to Haifa, Balbul returned to his boyhood club; although he played little during that period, he served as a link between Grant and the players.[7] Balbul also made nine appearances for Israel’s senior national team.[2]

After retiring, Balbul began his coaching career as an assistant at Maccabi Haifa, holding that position from 2002 to 2005.[1][2] His early head-coaching appointments included Maccabi Herzliya in 2005 and Hapoel Beersheba in 2005–06, followed by another spell at Beersheba in 2007.[1] He also worked as an assistant at Maccabi Netanya in 2006 and Maccabi Tel Aviv in 2008–09.[1]

In February 2006, Balbul’s Hapoel Beersheba, then playing in Israel’s National League, defeated Maccabi Beersheba 3–0 in the city derby. The result moved Hapoel Beersheba into second place, then a promotion position, during a strong run after Balbul took charge.[8]

Balbul coached Bnei Sakhnin in 2009–10 and Maccabi Petah Tikva in 2011, before returning to Sakhnin for 2013–14.[1] In his second Sakhnin spell, he led the club into the upper playoff.[6][2]

His work abroad included scouting for Grant at West Ham and serving as Grant’s assistant at Partizan Belgrade in 2012.[1][9] At Partizan, the two helped the club preserve its lead and win a title.[9] Balbul also joined Grant’s group at Tero Sasana in Thailand while initially visiting on vacation; he had no formal position there but reportedly received compensation connected with the cup the team won.[9]

Maccabi Haifa appointed Balbul as head coach in December 2014 after Aleksandar Stanojevic resigned, giving him a contract through the end of the season.[2] His first spell produced a fifth-place finish and a 49 percent league success rate. Roni Levy was appointed the following summer, ending Balbul’s tenure.[10]

Balbul coached Israel’s under-21 team from 2016 to 2018 before returning to Maccabi Haifa in December 2018.[1][10] His return began with a 5–0 State Cup victory over Hapoel Marmorek.[11] By January 2019, Haifa had won four consecutive league matches under him, including a 2–0 away victory over Hapoel Beersheba—the club’s first win in Beersheba since October 2009.[12] After 12 league matches, his record stood at eight wins and four draws without defeat, and Haifa secured second place at the end of the regular season.[4]

Haifa opened the 2019–20 league season with a 4–3 victory over Hapoel Ra’anana, recovering first from a 2–0 deficit and then from being 3–2 behind. Balbul introduced Tjaronn Chery in the 29th minute; Chery helped create the equalizer and assisted one of Nikita Rukavytsya’s two late goals as Haifa completed the comeback.[13]

In October 2019, Balbul said Haifa had scored the most goals in the league to that point and was among the teams conceding the fewest, while stressing the continuing work on both attack and defense.[14] After 26 matches, Haifa stood second with 58 points from 18 wins, four draws, and four defeats, six points behind Maccabi Tel Aviv.[14] Barak Bakhar subsequently replaced Balbul as Haifa’s coach.[15]

In 2021, following several months without a club coaching position, Balbul became an assistant to Israel head coach Willi Ruttensteiner.[3] He said he had missed coaching and described returning to the top level of Israeli football as “a great privilege.”[3] His subsequent temporary role with the senior national team ended in 2022 following a disagreement with newly appointed technical director Yossi Benayoun over the allocation of players between the senior and under-21 teams; Gadi Brummer was appointed in his place.[16]

Later in 2022, Balbul accepted the head-coaching position at Northeast United in India, his first head-coach appointment abroad.[17] The move followed a call from sporting director Ohad Efrat and a video conversation with club owner John Abraham.[17] Balbul said he wanted to experience a different culture and was attracted by the club’s infrastructure, broad staff, and professional freedom.[17] His stated ambition was to reach the playoffs and compete for a high position, potentially a title.[17] Reflecting on the unexpected opportunity, he said, “If you had told me a month ago that I’d coach in the Indian league, I would have said you were hallucinating.”[17]

Balbul and Northeast United parted by mutual agreement in December 2022 after the team opened its season with eight defeats, no points, and a goal record of four scored and 18 conceded, leaving it bottom of the table.[15] In April 2024, Maccabi Netanya appointed him as head coach.[5] He helped Netanya avoid relegation and reach the State Cup semifinals.[5] Netanya dismissed him on 29 October 2024 after a poor start to the 2024–25 campaign, with the club last in the league on four points from eight matches.[5]

During Balbul’s second spell at Maccabi Haifa, young players including Aid Habshi, Ofri Arad, Raz Meir, and Mohammad Abu Fani became key members of the team.[4] Their emergence accompanied the unbeaten 12-match league run that helped Haifa secure second place at the end of the 2018–19 regular season.[4]

Balbul’s departure from his temporary senior national-team role in 2022 produced differing accounts of whether he resigned or was released.[18] Balbul said he resigned because he wanted goalkeeper Daniel Peretz available to the senior team rather than assigned to the under-21 side.[18] The Israel Football Association’s statement said Benayoun released him after he refused the decision to include Peretz in the under-21 squad for European Championship qualifiers.[18] Balbul later characterized the disagreement as a broader question of the senior team’s priority and the progression of young players, rather than a dispute about one goalkeeper alone.[18]