Omer Atzili

Atzili began playing in Maccabi Tel Aviv’s youth department, joining at age eight and remaining until he was released at 16.[6][7] He later said that he had considered giving up football after leaving the club, but set himself goals that included reaching a senior team, succeeding at Beitar Jerusalem, and eventually returning to Maccabi Tel Aviv.[7]

He moved to Hapoel Rishon LeZion and made his senior debut there as a substitute against Beitar Jerusalem on 17 October 2011.[2] He made five league appearances in that season and scored his first Premier League goal on 12 May 2012; the next season he became a regular and scored six goals.[2] A retrospective described him in 2013 as earning 4,000 shekels a month and scoring four times in his last four matches for Rishon LeZion, a run that attracted interest from other Israeli clubs.[8]

Atzili joined Beitar Jerusalem in 2013 and served as the club’s captain during his time there from 2013 to 2016.[9] One account credits him with 14 league goals in 78 appearances, while another reports 19 goals in 78 appearances across competitions.[9][6] Beitar paid 700,000 shekels for his transfer, with Rishon LeZion retaining a share of a future sale, according to a retrospective.[8]

In August 2016, Atzili signed a four-year contract with Spanish club Granada CF after a difficult contract process with Beitar; an arbitration ruling set Granada’s payment at €750,000.[10] He said he chose the move to pursue his ambition of playing in Spain, turning down offers from other Israeli and foreign teams.[10] He made 11 appearances for Granada without scoring or assisting before returning to Israel.[11]

Maccabi Tel Aviv signed Atzili from Granada in June 2017 on a four-year deal, for a reported fee of about €1 million.[6][7] The move brought him back to the club whose youth ranks he had joined as a child, a return he described as coming full circle.[6][7] In the 2017–18 season he scored 10 goals in 17 appearances, and he later won two league titles with Maccabi.[7][9]

After leaving Maccabi Tel Aviv, Atzili played for APOEL Nicosia in Cyprus during the first half of the 2020–21 season.[11] He scored three goals and made three assists in 11 appearances over five months, before signing for Maccabi Haifa on 13 January 2021.[11][3] He later recalled uncertainty about joining Haifa and how its supporters would receive him, but said a match against Bnei Yehuda helped restore his confidence.[3] Reflecting on the difficult period in Cyprus and his subsequent recovery, he said, “Maccabi Haifa saved my life.”[3]

Atzili’s Maccabi Haifa spell lasted about two and a half years. He helped the club win three consecutive league championships, played in the Champions League, and received the league’s Player of the Season award twice.[3][5] His first season ended Maccabi Haifa’s ten-year wait for a league championship.[5] In 2021–22 he scored 20 league goals and provided 10 assists; in 2022–23 he scored 21 goals and made 12 assists.[5] He described his time at the club as “the best two years of my life; like a dream.”[3]

His most prominent European performance came on 11 October 2022, when he scored both goals in Maccabi Haifa’s 2–0 Champions League group-stage victory over Juventus at Sammy Ofer Stadium.[4] The first goal came in the seventh minute, while the second was a left-footed shot into the top-right corner in the 42nd minute.[4] It was Haifa’s first win in that season’s competition and its first Champions League victory since its 2002 win over Manchester United.[4] Atzili called the match his biggest and the two goals his greatest achievement.[3]

In summer 2023, Atzili moved from Maccabi Haifa to Al Ain in the United Arab Emirates; reports valued the transfer at $2 million or €2 million.[12][9] He scored seven goals and provided six assists in 30 appearances for Al Ain.[11] After that spell he joined Omonia Nicosia, where he made 12 appearances, with one assist and no goals, before returning to Israel.[11]

Atzili signed a two-and-a-half-year contract with Beitar Jerusalem in January 2025.[9] He had publicly announced a planned return to Maccabi Haifa before changing course and choosing Beitar.[9] He made his Beitar debut against Bnei Reineh, scoring a sixth-minute penalty in a 4–1 defeat.[13] In a December 2025 State Cup match, he scored from midfield and later took a free kick that contributed to the winning goal in a 2–1 comeback victory over Ironi Tiberias.[14] Sport5 listed him with 15 goals and six assists in the 2025–26 league season and showed him still playing for Beitar in 2026–27.[15]

Atzili made six appearances for Israel and scored no international goals. Sport5 also reported that he never started a national-team match.[16] He was recalled in September 2022 after initially being dropped following the 2020 affair, and his return drew boos during a Nations League match against Albania.[5] Two months after his recall, he announced his retirement from the national team.[5][16]

Atzili’s most sustained sporting impact came during Maccabi Haifa’s three consecutive championships. The club’s first title in that run ended a ten-year drought, while his successive Player of the Season awards and two-goal performance against Juventus made him one of the central figures of the period.[5][4] Haifa also became the first Israeli team to win the league in a season in which it participated in the Champions League.[3] His subsequent move to Al Ain was described as making him the first Jewish-Israeli player to play in an Arab league.[3]

In July 2020, Atzili and Maccabi Tel Aviv teammate Dor Micha were publicly named as suspects in an investigation concerning alleged sexual relations with two 15-year-old girls and the alleged provision of alcohol to minors.[17] The players said they did not know the girls were underage; one of the girls disputed that account in comments reported at the time.[17] Maccabi temporarily suspended both players while the allegations were investigated.[5][17]

In September 2020, the State Attorney’s Office closed the statutory-rape cases, saying there was no evidence the players knew the girls were underage; it also found no public interest in prosecuting them over the alleged alcohol provision.[5][18] No charges or conviction resulted. The report noted that an investigation into online shaming and bullying of the girls was still ongoing, and recorded criticism of the closure by a representative of a rape-crisis organization and a girl’s denial that she had misrepresented her age.[18]

Israel Hayom described Atzili as the first Jewish-Israeli player to play in an Arab league, while The Jerusalem Post called him the first Jew to do so.[3][12] The move drew criticism from some Al Ain supporters who opposed normalization with Israel, as well as social-media speculation about a diplomatic motive; other fans welcomed the signing.[12][19] Ynetnews reported that Al Ain’s website listed his nationality as Romanian and that he held a Romanian passport alongside Israeli citizenship.[19]