Rifaat "Jimmy" Turk (; , nicknamed Jimmy the Rocket,"Rifaat Turk,"
Olympedia/ born 16 September 1954) is an Israeli former footballer, manager, and Deputy Mayor of

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 ...

. Turk was the first Arab to play for the Israel national team and to represent the country in football at the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

Early life

Born in the Ajami neighborhood of

Jaffa Jaffa (, ; , ), also called Japho, Joppa or Joppe in English, is an ancient Levantine Sea, Levantine port city which is part of Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel, located in its southern part. The city sits atop a naturally elevated outcrop on ...

, Israel, to

Arab-Israeli The Arab citizens of Israel form the country's largest ethnic minority. Their community mainly consists of former Mandatory Palestine citizens (and their descendants) who continued to inhabit the territory that was acknowledged as Israeli by ...

parents, Turk was the son of a fisherman, and is Muslim."RİFAAT TURK - SOYADI TÜRK, KENDİSİ ARAP, MİLLİ TAKIMI İSRAİL - SEMİH KASTORYANO"
/ref>''Shalom''
Issues 287-295, p. 1991-22, 1991. He was the second of eight children of Hichmat Türk. He dropped out of school during the eighth grade.Sarah Coleman (June 2003)
"Rifat Turk: Scoring for Arab Israelis,"
''World Press Review''. He was tall, and weighed , during his playing days.

Football career

Israeli teams

After being spotted by chance by a scout while playing on a beach in 1970 at the age of 16, Turk joined

Hapoel Tel Aviv Hapoel Tel Aviv () 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, such as football, basketball, w ...

's youth team, and made his debut for the senior club in July 1972.Shaul Eisenberg (23 September 2020)
"Groundbreaking; Jimmy Turk - the Muslim player who led coexistence in football,"
''Jokopost''. In 1980, he was named Israel's player of the year. He won the Israeli championship with the team in 1981.Ronny Blaschke (2020)
''Machtspieler; Fußball in Propaganda, Krieg und Revolution,''
Verlag die Werkstatt. He played for

Hapoel Ramat Gan Hapoel Ramat Gan Givatayim F.C. (, ''Moadon Kaduregel Hapoel Ramat Gan Givatayim'') is an Israeli football club from Ramat Gan and Givatayim. They currently play in Liga Leumit, the second tier of Israeli football. Home matches are played at Rama ...

on loan from July 1982 until July 1983, when he returned to Hapoel Tel Aviv. After leaving Hapoel Tel Aviv as a player in 1984, Turk signed with

Hapoel Jerusalem Hapoel Jerusalem is a sport organization in Jerusalem as a local branch of the Hapoel movement. The branch was established in the 1920s and represents the city in more sports than any other sport organization in Jerusalem. Today, the club's lead ...

in July 1984. He retired from playing in July 1987. In 2013, Turk played on the Israeli Peace Team, an over-35-years-of-age all-star team of Israeli former professional soccer players who were Muslim, Jewish, and Christian, some who had competed on Israel's national soccer team. The Israeli Peace Team toured the United States, promoting peace through football. Turk was the pioneer for dozens of Arab-Israeli football players who followed him, and a pioneer of Arab-Jewish integration in Israeli football. In 2012, all but one of the football teams in the Israeli first division had at least one Arab-Israeli player, and the league's top two goalscorers were Arab-Israelis. By 2020, almost half the players on Team Israel were Arab-Israeli players.

Team Israel and Olympics

Turk made his debut for the Israel national team, at 21 years of age, on 25 July 1976, playing for Team Israel manager David Schweitzer. He played 33 games for the Israeli national team in his career from 1976 to 1986, scoring three goals. On the one hand, Turk was subjected to anti-Arab abuse during nearly every game he played; at the same time however, the request that Arab players join the Israeli national team was met with total acceptance by the vast majority of Jewish Israelis, with only very rare exceptions. Several Arab-Israeli football players have since represented Israel, including Walid Badir,

Zahi Armeli Zahi Armali (, ; born 25 October 1957) is an Israeli former professional footballer who played as a forward. He started his career at Maccabi Shefa-'Amr, and a holder of many records at Maccabi Haifa. Early life and career Armali was born and ...

, Mu'nas Dabbur,

Mohammad Ghadir Mohammed Ghadir (, ; born 21 January 1991) is a retired Israeli professional football (soccer), footballer who plays for Hapoel Hadera F.C., Hapoel Hadera. Club career Maccabi Haifa After progressing through the youth ranks of Maccabi Haifa F.C ...

, and Abbas Suan. He became the first Arab to represent Israel at the Olympic Games when Turk played as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

in the football tournament of the

1976 Summer Olympics The 1976 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Montreal 1976 (), were an international multi-sport event held from July 17 to August 1, 1976, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Montreal ...

."60 Sporting Heroes: No. 28 Rifat "Jimmy" Turk,"
''The Jerusalem Post'', 7 April 2008 Israel came in 5th in that Olympic Games, behind

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

, which handed Israel its only defeat, in the quarterfinals.

Manager and TV commentator

Turk went on to manage a number of clubs, including Hapoel Tel Aviv from 1989 to 1992 (during which time it was 18–9–13), and Hapoel Tayibe in 1997 (1–2–7), the first Arab club to play in the top division. On 7 July 2015 Turk replaced Nissan Yehezkel as

Maccabi Ahi Nazareth Maccabi Akhi Nazareth Football Club (; ) is an Israeli football club based in Nazareth. The club is currently in the and plays at the Ilut Stadium in Ilut on the outskirts of the city. History The club was formed in 1968, and played in Liga ...

's manager until January 2016 (3–0–2), which played in Israel's

Liga Artzit Liga Artzit (, lit. ''Country League'') is the defunct third division of Israeli Football League, beneath its highest division Premier League and the second division Liga Leumit. Before being cancelled in 2009, it was run by the Israel Football A ...

. He later served as a television commentator on football in

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 ...

games.

Honours

*Israeli Championships (1): **1980–81 *Player of the Year **1980

Political career; Deputy Mayor of Tel Aviv

Turk is a member of the Israeli

Meretz Meretz (, ; ) was a left-wing political party in Israel. The party was formed in 1992 by the merger of Ratz, Mapam and Shinui, and was at its peak between 1992 and 1996 when it had 12 seats. It had no seats in the Knesset following its failure ...

political party. He was elected to the Tel Aviv City Council in 1998. In 2003, he was elected the Deputy Mayor of Tel Aviv. In 2008, when Israeli former basketball star

Tal Brody Talbot "Tal" Brody (Hebrew language, Hebrew: טל ברודי; born August 30, 1943), nicknamed Mr. Basketball, is an American-Israeli former professional basketball player and current goodwill ambassador of Israel. Brody was drafted #12 in the 1 ...

entered politics, Turk advised that in his view: "The political field is much more dirty and self-interested than the field of sports.""Rifat Turk gives advice to Tal Brody"
''N12'', 25 November 2008.

Personal life

Turk's son Hanes is part of Hapoel Tel Aviv's youth system.

References

External links

The Association for Sports, Culture and Education in Jaffa
{{DEFAULTSORT:Turk, Rifaat 1954 births Living people Arab citizens of Israel Arab politicians in Israel Arab-Israeli footballers Deputy mayors of Tel Aviv-Yafo Footballers from Jaffa Footballers at the 1976 Summer Olympics Hapoel Tel Aviv F.C. players Hapoel Jerusalem F.C. players Hapoel Ramat Gan Givatayim F.C. players Israeli Football Hall of Fame inductees Israeli football managers Israeli Footballer of the Year recipients Israeli men's footballers Israel men's international footballers Israeli Muslims Israeli people of Turkish descent Israeli Premier League players Maccabi Akhi Nazareth F.C. managers Men's association football midfielders Meretz politicians Olympic footballers for Israel Sports commentators 20th-century Israeli sportsmen