Eliran Atar (; born 17 February 1987) is an Israeli professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays for Bnei Yehuda as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

Early life

Atar was born in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

, to a

Moroccan Jewish Moroccan Jews (; ; ) are Jews who live in or are from Morocco. Moroccan Jews constitute an ancient community dating to Roman times. Jews began immigrating to the region as early as 70 CE. They were much later met by a second wave of migrants fro ...

family.

Club career

Bnei Yehuda

On 7 February 2009, when playing for Bnei Yehuda, Atar scored from an overhead kick that was a candidate for the 2009 Puskás Award, though finishing fourth (i.e., the fourth most beautiful goal of that year). He became the top scorer of the 2008–09 Israeli Premier League season with 14 goals.

Maccabi Tel Aviv

On 7 May 2010, Atar signed a four-years contract with

Maccabi Tel Aviv Maccabi Tel Aviv () is one of the largest sports clubs in Israel, and a part of the Maccabi association. Many sports clubs and teams in Tel Aviv are in association with Maccabi and compete in a variety of sports, such as football, basketball, j ...

for a transfer fee of $1.2 million. On 26 August 2010 he was selected to the Player Of The Match with two amazing goals on the win 4–3 over PSG in the Europa League. Atar completed his first season with Maccabi as the club's top goalscorer with 18 league goals and 22 overall (all competitions) season goals. He attracts interest from

VfL Wolfsburg Verein für Leibesübungen Wolfsburg e. V., commonly known as VfL Wolfsburg (), is a German professional sports club based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony. The club grew out of a multi-sports club for Volkswagen workers in the city of Wolfsburg. I ...

, 1. FC Nürnberg,

Parma Parma (; ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmesan, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,986 inhabitants as of 2025, ...

and Betis.

Reims

On 24 June Atar, signed a four-year deal with

Ligue 1 Ligue 1 (; ), officially known as Ligue 1 McDonald's France, McDonald's for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in France and the highest level of the French football league system. Administered by the Ligue de ...

side

Stade de Reims Stade de Reims () is a French professional football club based in Reims. The club was formed in 1931 and plays in Ligue 2, the second tier of football in France. Reims plays home matches at the Stade Auguste Delaune. Reims is one of the mo ...

Maccabi Haifa

On 15 January 2015, he signed a three half-year deal with

Israeli Premier League The Israeli Premier League (, Ligat HaAl, ) is a professional association football league in Israel and the highest level of the Israeli football league system. The league is contested by 14 clubs, and operates on a system of promotion and rele ...

side

Maccabi Haifa Maccabi Haifa () is one of the biggest sports clubs in Israel and a part of the Maccabi association. It runs several sports clubs and teams in Haifa which have competed in a variety of sports over the years, such as Football, Basketball, Weightl ...

International career

On 28 August 2010 Atar received his first call up for the Israel national team for

UEFA Euro 2012 The 2012 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2012 or simply Euro 2012, was the 14th UEFA European Championship, European Championship for List of men's national association football teams#UEFA (Europe), men's ...

qualifiers against

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

and

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

but withdrew himself from the squad due to an eye injury received in a league match against

Beitar Jerusalem Beitar Jerusalem Football Club (), commonly known as Beitar Jerusalem () or simply Beitar (), is an Israeli professional football club based in the city of Jerusalem, that plays in the Israeli Premier League, the top tier in Israeli football ...

. In October 2012, Atar was called up again to the Israeli squad before a double header

2014 FIFA World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for list of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil fr ...

qualifier against

Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...

but yet again was released from the squad due to a lower back injury without making a national appearance. Atar, however, was able to make his debut in an

international friendly An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, scrimmage, demonstration, training match, pre-season game, warmup match, or preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sport, sporting event whose prize money and impact on th ...

defeat against

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

, on 14 November 2012. On 12 November 2016, almost exactly four years later, Atar scored his first ever international goal for Israel in a

2018 FIFA World Cup Qualification The 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification process was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA FIFA#Structure, confederations to decide 31 of the 32 teams which would play in the 2018 FIFA World Cup, with Russia national football team, Rus ...

match against

Albania Albania ( ; or ), officially the Republic of Albania (), is a country in Southeast Europe. It is located in the Balkans, on the Adriatic Sea, Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea, and shares land borders with Montenegro to ...

. It was only his fourth cap since 2012 and Israel won, 3–0.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Israel's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Atar goal''.

Honours

Club

Maccabi Tel Aviv *

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

, 2018–19 *

Toto Cup The Israel Toto Cup (, ''Gvia Ha'Toto'') is an association football tournament that features clubs in the two highest divisions in Israel: the Israeli Premier League Ligat ha'Al, Ligat Ha'Al; and the Israeli 2nd division Liga Leumit. Both of the ...

: 2017–18, 2018–19 Maccabi Haifa *

Israel State Cup The Israel State Cup (, ''Gvia HaMedina''), is a knockout cup competition in Israeli football, run by the Israel Football Association (IFA). The State Cup was first held in 1928 as the People's Cup. Because it involves clubs of all standards ...

: 2015–16

Individual

* FIFA Puskas Award 4th place:

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

– 2008–09 Top Goalscorer 1st place (Joint) *

– 2010–11 Top Goalscorer 2nd place *

– 2012–13 Top Goalscorer 1st place * Footballer of the Year in Israel: 2012–13

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Atar, Eliran 1987 births Living people Israeli Mizrahi Jews Israeli men's footballers Israel men's youth international footballers Israel men's international footballers Bnei Yehuda Tel Aviv F.C. players Maccabi Tel Aviv F.C. players Stade de Reims players Maccabi Haifa F.C. players Beitar Jerusalem F.C. players Israeli Premier League players Ligue 1 players Israeli expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in France Israeli expatriate sportspeople in France Footballers from Tel Aviv Israeli people of Iraqi-Jewish descent Israeli people of Moroccan-Jewish descent Men's association football forwards Israeli Footballer of the Year recipients 21st-century Israeli sportsmen