Mordechai "Motaleh" Spiegler (; born 19 August 1944) is an Israeli retired

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player and manager. A prolific forward, he is placed second in Israel's all time goalscoring list, with 32 goals in 83 caps.

Early life

Mordechai Spiegler was born in

Asbest Asbest () is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, town in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia, located on the Bolshoy Reft River (right tributary of the Pyshma River, Pyshma) on the eastern slopes of the Ural Mountains, northeast of Yekaterinburg. Po ...

, Soviet Russia, and is

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

.''Day by Day in Jewish Sports History'' - Bob Wechsler
/ref> He immigrated to

Netanya Netanya () () or Natanya (), is a city in the "Planet Bekasi" Central District (Israel), Setanyahu of Israel, Israel BAB ih, and is the capital of the surrounding Sharon plain. It is north of Tel Aviv, and south of Haifa, between the Poleg stre ...

, Israel, when he was a boy.

Club career

As a striker, he played for Maccabi Netanya along with Paris Saint Germain in France and alongside

Pelé Edson Arantes do Nascimento (; 23 October 1940 – 29 December 2022), better known by his nickname Pelé (), was a Brazilian professional Association football, footballer who played as a Forward (association football), forward. Widely reg ...

for

New York Cosmos New York Cosmos may refer to * New York Cosmos (1970–1985), a team in the North American Soccer League (then the top-tier soccer league in the United States and Canada) * New York Cosmos (2010), a team playing since 2020 in the National Indepen ...

of the North American Soccer League in the 1970s. He was chosen as the Israeli Player of the Year a record four times, in 1967–68, 1968–69, 1969–70, and in 1970–71.

International career

Israel_soccer_team_holding_Asian_cup_1964a

Spiegler made his international debut for

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 ...

on 2 January 1964 against

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

. He appeared in the Israeli win in the 1964 AFC Asian Cup, and scored two goals at the tournament, which made him a joint tournament top scorer. His major achievement was helping Israel qualify for the

1970 FIFA World Cup The 1970 FIFA World Cup was the 9th edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's senior national teams. Held from 31 May to ...

in Mexico. He scored Israel's lone goal in World Cup history in a 1–1 draw against

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. His 32 goals for the national team (according to IFA count,

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

counts only 24 of them) was the Israeli record up until 2021 when he was surpassed by Eran Zahavi. Spiegler scored 24 goals in 62 'official' internationals for the Israel national side, he also played in 21 other 'unofficial' matches (mostly Olympic Games qualifiers) scoring eight more goals. Spiegler captained the Israel Olympic team at Mexico City 1968 that reached the quarter-finals, losing to

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by a draw, 1–1.

Post-playing career

Spiegler was nominated as the best Israeli player of the prior 50 years by the Israel Football Association in the

UEFA Jubilee Awards To celebrate the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA)'s 50th anniversary in 2004, each of its member associations was asked by UEFA to choose one of its own players as the single most outstanding player of the past 50 years (1954–2003). ...

in November 2003. He is a member of the Education and Publicity Committee of the IFA. In 2007, he won a lifetime contributions special award for the Israeli national team in the

, determined by '' Yedioth Ahronoth'' and the Israeli football player association.

Career statistics

Club

International

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

Managerial statistics

Honours

Player

Maccabi Netanya * Israeli Premier League: 1970–71, 1977–78 *

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 ...

: 1977–78 * Israeli Supercup: 1971, 1978 Israel * AFC Youth Championship: 1964 *

AFC Asian Cup The AFC Asian Cup is the primary association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), determining the continental champion of Asia. It is the second-oldest c ...

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 – In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patria ...

Individual * Israeli Premier League top goalscorer: 1965–66, 1966–68, 1968–69 * Israeli Player of the Year: 1965–66, 1968–69, 1969–70, 1970–71 * Member of the Israeli Football Hall of Fame

Manager

Beitar Tel Aviv * Second Division: 1980–81 Maccabi Netanya * Israeli Premier League: 1982–83 * Israeli Supercup:

1983 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the ...

UEFA Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from , "between" and , " betting pool"),Most precisely, from ( football pool); cf. originally called the International Football Cup, was a summer football competition between European clubs. The competition was dis ...

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

* League Cup: 1982,

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Spiegler, Mordechai 1944 births Soviet Jews Jewish Israeli sportspeople Israeli people of Russian-Jewish descent UEFA Golden Players People from Asbest Soviet emigrants to Israel Living people Men's association football forwards Israeli men's footballers Maccabi Netanya F.C. players Beitar Tel Aviv F.C. players Paris FC players Paris Saint-Germain FC players Israel men's international footballers Israeli expatriate men's footballers Olympic footballers for Israel 1964 AFC Asian Cup players 1968 AFC Asian Cup players Footballers at the 1968 Summer Olympics 1970 FIFA World Cup players AFC Asian Cup–winning players Ligue 1 players Expatriate men's footballers in France Expatriate men's soccer players in South Africa North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States New York Cosmos (1970–1985) players Maccabi Haifa F.C. managers Israeli football managers Maccabi Jaffa F.C. managers Hapoel Haifa F.C. managers Maccabi Netanya F.C. managers Jewish Guild players Israeli expatriate sportspeople in France Israeli expatriate sportspeople in South Africa Israeli expatriate sportspeople in the United States Footballers from Netanya Israeli Footballer of the Year recipients 20th-century Israeli sportsmen