Itay Menachem Shechter (or Etey Schechter,http://antisemitism.org.il/en/70261/ he, איתי שכטר; born 22 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 ...

who plays as a forward for

Hapoel Petah Tikva Hapoel Petah Tikva F.C. ( he, הפועל פתח תקווה) is an Israeli football club based in the city of Petah Tikva, currently playing in the Liga Leumit. Its most successful period was throughout the 1950s and 1960s, in which the club won ...

. He has played for the Israel national under-18 football team, Israel national under-19 football team,

Israel national under-21 football team The Israel national under-21 football team ( he, הנבחרת הצעירה של ישראל בכדורגל) is the national under-21 football team of Israel and is controlled by the Israel Football Association (IFA). It is considered to be the fee ...

, and

Israel national football team The Israel national football team ( he, נבחרת ישראל בכדורגל, ) represents Israel in international football, and is governed by the Israel Football Association (IFA). Israel's national team is the direct successor of the ...

. He won a gold medal at the

2005 Maccabiah Games The 17th Maccabiah Games ( he, המכביה ה-17 ישראל תשס"ה), held in Israel, were an incarnation of the 'Jewish Olympics.' They attracted the largest attendance of any Maccabiah Games, including more than 900 representatives from the Un ...

with Team Israel. He has formerly played for Hapoel Nazareth Illit, Maccabi Netanya,

1. FC Kaiserslautern 1. Fußball-Club Kaiserslautern e. V., also known as 1. FCK, FCK (), FC Kaiserslautern () or colloquially Lautern (), is a German sports club based in Kaiserslautern, Rhineland-Palatinate. In addition to football, the club also operates in severa ...

Swansea City Swansea City Association Football Club (; cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Cymdeithas Dinas Abertawe) is a professional football club based in Swansea, Wales that plays in the Championship, the second tier of English football. Swansea have played their ho ...

Hapoel Tel Aviv Hapoel Tel Aviv ( he, הפועל תל אביב) is a sports club in Israel, founded in the 1920s, and part of the Hapoel association. It runs several sports clubs and teams in Tel Aviv which have competed in a variety of sports over the years, suc ...

Nantes Nantes (, , ; Gallo: or ; ) is a city in Loire-Atlantique on the Loire, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth largest in France, with a population of 314,138 in Nantes proper and a metropolitan area of nearly 1 million inhabit ...

Maccabi Haifa Maccabi Haifa ( he, מכבי חיפה) 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 Footbal ...

, Beitar Jerusalem,

Maccabi Tel Aviv Maccabi Tel Aviv ( he, מכבי תל אביב) 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 ...

and Hapoel Be'er Sheva.

Early life

Shechter was born in

Ramat Yishai Ramat Yishai ( he, רָמַת יִשַּׁי, ''Jesse's Heights''; ar, رمات يشاي) is a town in the Northern District of Israel, located on the side of the Haifa– Nazareth road about eastern to Kiryat Tivon. It was previously called J ...

, Israel, to a family of

Ashkenazi Jewish Ashkenazi Jews ( ; he, יְהוּדֵי אַשְׁכְּנַז, translit=Yehudei Ashkenaz, ; yi, אַשכּנזישע ייִדן, Ashkenazishe Yidn), also known as Ashkenazic Jews or ''Ashkenazim'',, Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation: , singu ...

( Romanian-Jewish) descent. As a senior footballer, Shechter attended

Torah The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the s ...

classes twice a week, and also puts on

tefillin Tefillin (; Modern Hebrew language, Israeli Hebrew: / ; Ashkenazim, Ashkenazic pronunciation: ), or phylacteries, are a set of small black leather boxes with leather straps containing scrolls of parchment inscribed with verses from the Torah. Te ...

every morning.

Club career

Early career in Israel

Shechter started his career in the

Hapoel Haifa Hapoel Haifa Football Club ( he, מועדון הכדורגל הפועל חיפה, ''Moadon HaKaduregel Hapoel Haifa'') is an Israeli football club located in the city of Haifa. The club won one championship (1998–99) and 4 Israeli cups ( ...

youth team where in 1999–2000 he won the Israeli Youth Cup at the age of 13. One year later, Shechter moved to the youth club F.C. Emek Izra'el and helped the club promote in four seasons from the fourth league to the first league in youth football. Three years after moving to Emek Izra'el, the youth club was joined to the youth club of Hapoel Nazareth Illit, which played in the

Israeli Premier League The Israeli Premier League ( he, ליגת העל, ''Ligat Ha`Al'', ), is a professional association football league which operates as the highest division of the Israeli Football League – the state's league of Israel. The league is contested ...

at the same season, and the new club was renamed Hapoel Nazareth Illit/Emek Izra'el. Shechter was eventually promoted to the first team of Hapoel Nazareth Illit in the

. His first game in the

was on 29 August 2005 during Nazareth Illit's 1–2 defeat to

F.C. Ashdod SC Ashdod ( he, מועדון ספורט אשדוד, ''Moadon Sport Ashdod'', lit. Sport Club Ashdod, mainly known in Israel by the semi-acronym name , ''Mem Samekh Ashdod'', lit. S.C. Ashdod) is an Israeli football club, playing in the port cit ...

, when he came on as a substitute. He scored his first goal in Nazareth Illit first team against Maccabi Netanya in a 3–1 loss in the

, scoring the only goal for his club in this game. He won a gold medal with Team Israel, alongside Yuval Spungin, in the

. Shechter has made 10 appearances for the

, was capped several times at youth level. His first appearance in the U-21 team was on the losing side to

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ...

, losing 2–1 in a friendly game, Shechter scored the only goal for the Israeli team in this game. In 2006, Shechter moved to Maccabi Netanya because he wanted to move to a bigger club than Nazareth Illit, which had just been relegated to

Liga Leumit Liga Leumit ( he, ליגה לאומית, lit. ''National League'') is the second division of the Israeli Football League, and below its Premier League. Structure There are 16 clubs in the league. At the end of each season, the two lowest-plac ...

. While at the club, Shechter would soon play in the important member in the first team, due to his goal and assist. In his three season with Maccabi Netanya, he would score twenty-one in eighty-three appearances. In addition, Shechter soon attracted interest from clubs not only from domestic, but also clubs from abroad like

Standard Liège Royal Standard de Liège, commonly referred to as Standard Liège (; nl, Standard Luik ; german: Standard Lüttich ) or simply Standard in Belgium, is a Belgian professional football club based in the city of Liège. They are one of the mo ...

and

Club Brugge (), known simply as Club Brugge (in English also: ''Club Bruges''), is a Belgian professional football club based in Bruges, Belgium. It was founded in 1891 and its home ground is the Jan Breydel Stadium, which has a capacity of 29,062.

Hapoel Tel Aviv

After three years with Maccabi Netanya on 23 July 2009, he moved for $500,000 to

where he played until 2011. He scored on his debut with Hapoel Tel Aviv in

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. ...

3–1 win against

IFK Göteborg Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna Göteborg (officially IFK Göteborg Fotboll), commonly known as IFK Göteborg, IFK (especially locally) or simply Göteborg, is a Swedish professional Football team, football club based in Gothenburg. Founded in ...

in the third qualifying round. He made his league debut for the club, on the opening game of the season, in a goalless draw against Beitar Jerusalem. One month later, on 21 September 2009, he scored his first goal for the club, in a 2–1 loss against

; followed up with his second and third goal on 4 October 2009, in a 3–0 win against his former club, Maccabi Netanya. In the Europa League group-stage match, he scored two goals and provided two assist in two consecutive games against

Hamburger SV Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its football section. Though the current HSV was founded in June 1919 from a merger of thr ...

and Rapid Wien. Since in his first season, he scored in consecutive games, at least three times. He also scored a hat-trick, in a 7–1 win over

on 21 November 2009. His season ended in positive with the club when the club won the league. On 18 August 2010, Shechter made headlines during a

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

playoff match against Red Bull Salzburg in Austria, when he celebrated a goal by pulling a crocheted Hapoel Tel Aviv

kippah A , , or , plural ), also called ''yarmulke'' (, ; yi, יאַרמלקע, link=no, , german: Jarmulke, pl, Jarmułka or ''koppel'' ( yi, קאפל ) is a brimless cap, usually made of cloth, traditionally worn by Jewish males to fulfill the ...

from his sock and placing it on his head. The display earned him a yellow card and garnered attention in Israel, where the gesture was widely interpreted as a triumphant gesture against the Nazi history of Austria's past. This interpretation was questioned when it was discovered that the head covering was given to him by a cancer patient and Hapoel Tel Aviv fan. On 20 October 2010, Shechter scored his first Champions League goal, in a 3–1 loss against

Schalke 04 Fußballclub Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04 e. V., commonly known as FC Schalke 04 (), Schalke 04 (), or abbreviated as S04 (), is a professional German football and multi-sports club originally from the Schalke district of Gelsenkirchen, North Rhi ...

. Soon after that, Shechter's playing time significantly decreased, due to injuries; the first being his thigh muscle in late August; his second another thigh muscle in October; his third a dislocated shoulder and the last was another dislocated shoulder, which ruled him out for the rest of the season, during a match against

Hapoel Acre Hapoel Acre Football Club ( he, מועדון כדורגל הפועל עכו, ''Moadon Kaduregel Hapoel Akko'') is an Israeli football club based in Acre, Israel. The club currently plays in Liga Leumit. History Founded in 1946, the club dwelt i ...

. In December 2010, Italian side Chievo wanted to sign Shechter on loan, with an option to buy the player. Among those who tried to sign him were Celtic, but the move was soon pulled.

1. FC Kaiserslautern

On 7 July 2011, Shechter's transfer to

from the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footbal ...

was completed. The fee was €2,500,000 and he signed a four-year contract with the club, where he was soon joined with compatriot Gil Vermouth. He made his debut for the club, on the opening game of the season, in a 2–0 loss against Werder Bremen. Then, the next game, he scored his first goal for the club, in a 1–1 draw against

Augsburg Augsburg (; bar , Augschburg , links=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swabian_German , label=Swabian German, , ) is a city in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, around west of Bavarian capital Munich. It is a university town and regional seat of the '' ...

. However, later in the season, he soon struggled to score goals, having only scored four times in all competitions and it went worse when he lost his first team place, due to a suspension against

Hannover 96 Hannoverscher Sportverein von 1896, commonly referred to as Hannover 96 (), Hannover, HSV or simply 96, is a German professional football club based in the city of Hanover, Lower Saxony. They played in the Bundesliga for a total of 30 years betw ...

on 18 December 2011, causing him to miss two games. Another is suffering two injuries: calf muscle strain and muscular problems. After a 4–0 loss against

Mainz Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-west, with Ma ...

, Shechter was subjected to anti-Semitic insults, which caused nationwide outrage and condemnation. At the end of the season, the club was relegated.

Swansea City

On 15 August 2012,

of the English

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

signed Shechter on a one-year loan deal from Kaiserslautern. After being included in the bench as an unused substitute against

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

on 1 September, he made his debut for the club two weeks later, coming on as a substitute for Leon Britton in the 79th minute of a 2–0 defeat at

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa P ...

. On 3 November, he contributed an assist for Pablo Hernández, in a 1–1 draw against Chelsea. Shechter was an unused substitute on 24 February 2013 as Swansea won the

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

with a 5–0 win over Bradford City in the final at

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...

. On 7 May, he scored his first Premier League goal and the only goal of his loan, in a 3–2 win over

Wigan Athletic Wigan Athletic Football Club () is an English professional association football club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 193 ...

at the

DW Stadium The DW Stadium is a stadium in Robin Park, in Wigan, within the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The ground is owned and managed by Wigan Football Company Limited, which is 85% owned by Wigan Athletic and 15% owne ...

. At the end of the season, Shechter paid tribute to the club for treating him very well. However, upon making his return to the club, Shechter revealed he was never part of the squad at Swansea City.

Return to Hapoel Tel Aviv

On 13 June 2013, Shechter returned to Hapoel Tel Aviv, exactly two years after he left for Kaiserslautern. Hapoel had to pay Kaiserslautern a mere €500,000 transfer fee, €2 million less than what the German club paid for his services just two years before. He previously went to training with the club in February after being barred from going to Dubai, due to United Arab Emirates’ policy on visits by Israelis.

Nantes and Maccabi Haifa

On 30 January 2014 he was loaned to

, joining the French club on a permanent basis on 22 May, on a two-year deal. During his time at the club he scored twice in a 4–0

Coupe de la Ligue The Coupe de la Ligue (), known outside France as the French League Cup, was a knockout cup competition in French football organized by the Ligue de Football Professionnel. The tournament was established in 1993 and, unlike the Coupe de France, w ...

win over Laval in October, and his only

Ligue 1 Ligue 1, officially known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the French football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. ...

goal came the previous month to decide a 2–1 home win over

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

; however, on 2 February 2015 he returned to Israel and signed a 4 years deal with

Beitar Jerusalem

On 22 January 2016, Shechter he was loaned to Beitar Jerusalem after scoring only one goal this term for

. On 22 May 2018, Shechter left Beitar Jerusalem.

Maccabi Tel Aviv

On 24 May 2018, Shechter signed to

club

Hapoel Be'er Sheva

On 20 June 2021, Shechter signed for Hapoel Be'er Sheva.

Hapoel Petah Tikva

On 19 June 2023 signed for

International career

He participated in the Valeri Lobanovsky Memorial Tournament 2007, where he scored 2 goals as the top scorer and brought victory to his team. On 3 March 2010 he made his debut in the victory match against

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, a ...

. On 10 August 2011, scored his first goal for the national team after coming on as a substitute in the match against

Cote d'Ivoire Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre is ...

Personal life

Following a win against

in the Europa League in 2009, Shechter, along with Brazilian teammate

Douglas da Silva Douglas da Silva (born 7 March 1984) is a Brazilian professional association football player who plays for Brusque as a central defender. Career Da Silva moved to Israel in 2005 to join Hapoel Kfar Saba. He quickly established himself as one of ...

, was arrested at Gothenburg airport over rape allegations, but was soon released from custody. The prosecutor allowed the pair to go as there was no evidence to justify keeping them in jail. Prosecutors then dropped charges against Shechter, while Douglas' case continued. Eventually, police soon dropped the charges against the pair.

Career statistics

Club

International goals

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

Honours

Hapoel Tel-Aviv *

(1): 2009–10 * State Cup (2): 2009–10,

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

Swansea City *

Football League Cup The EFL Cup (referred to historically, and colloquially, as the League Cup), currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual knockout competition and major trophy in men's domestic football in England. Organised by th ...

(1):

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

Maccabi Tel Aviv *

(2): 2018–19, 2019-20 * State Cup (1):

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

Toto Cup The Israel Toto Cup ( he, גביע הטוטו, ''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 second division Liga ...

(2): 2018–19,

2020-21 The hyphen-minus is the most commonly used type of hyphen, widely used in digital documents. It is the only character that looks like a minus sign or a dash in many character sets such as ASCII or on most keyboards, so it is also used as such. ...

Super Cup A super cup is a competition, usually but not exclusively in association football, which often forms the 'curtain raiser' to a season, and typically involves only two teams who have qualified through success in other competitions during the prev ...

(2):

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in ...

Hapoel Be'er Sheva * State Cup (1): 2021–22 *

(1):

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeyp ...

Footnotes

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Shechter, Itay 1987 births Living people Israeli Ashkenazi Jews Israeli men's footballers Israel men's international footballers Hapoel Nof HaGalil F.C. players Maccabi Netanya F.C. players Hapoel Tel Aviv F.C. players 1. FC Kaiserslautern players Swansea City A.F.C. players FC Nantes players Maccabi Haifa F.C. players Beitar Jerusalem F.C. players Maccabi Tel Aviv F.C. players Hapoel Be'er Sheva F.C. players Hapoel Petah Tikva F.C. players Israeli Premier League players Bundesliga players Premier League players Ligue 1 players Israeli expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Wales Expatriate men's footballers in France Israeli expatriate sportspeople in Germany Israeli expatriate sportspeople in Wales Israeli expatriate sportspeople in France Israeli people of Romanian-Jewish descent Maccabiah Games medalists in football Maccabiah Games gold medalists for Israel Maccabiah Games competitors for Israel Competitors at the 2005 Maccabiah Games Men's association football forwards People from Ramat Yishay Footballers from Northern District (Israel) Israel men's youth international footballers Israel men's under-21 international footballers