Three Canadian players make deals in the Promised Land: Israel a hotbed for Canucks By Steven Sandor Posted on January 10, 2013 1 0 673 Share on Facebook Share on Twitter If there is one league Canadian soccer followers should focus on during the open transfer window… It’s Israel. Since the holiday season began, three Canadians have settled in with their new Israeli clubs — Tomer Chencinski, Oliver Spring and Daniel Haber. The highest-profile deal of the three is the one involving Canadian keeper Chencinski, who transferred from Swedish side Orebro to Maccabi Tel Aviv. But Chencinski will be joined by another Toronto prospect — Spring. Spring is now part of Tel Aviv’s U19 team. He will work under the eye of MTA’s manager of football, Jordi Cruyff. Maccabi Tel Aviv is owned by Canadian Mitch Goldhar. And Haber, who led the Ivy League in scoring this year as a member of Cornell’s Big Red program, decided to forego his final year of NCAA eligibility. This week, he signed a two-and-a-half year pro contract with Maccabi Haifa. “I am delighted and very glad to join a club such as Maccabi Haifa that is the biggest club in Israel and known across Europe,” Haber told the club’s official website. “I hope everything would turn out and I would be able to play for the team, for me, as a Jew, it is a big dream to play here.” Oliver Spring: Now with Maccabi Tel Aviv’s youth team Haber has never been part of any Canadian youth team of note. And while he is a late bloomer (he’s 20, and it needs to be said Ivy League schools aren’t know for being soccer powers), he’s flown under the radar. Spring, the teenage defender who’d previously been on trial with Feyenoord, had been on trial with both Maccabi Haifa and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Spring was not part of Canada’s U-17 or U-20 programs, yet was scouted by Feyenoord and two major Israeli clubs. He’s displayed his talents for the likes of Feyenoord’s Roy Makaay and Cruyff in Tel Aviv. Chencinski has stated over and over that he’d love to get a shot to play for the Canadian national team. He literally begged then-coach Stephen Hart to bring him on board, even for a friendly. He did this when he was the best thing about a bad Orebro team. He did it when he was one of the top goalies in the Finnish league. From The11’s Q and A with Chencinski in April, when he was with Orebro (SEE THE WHOLE THING HERE): “I don’t want to say frustrated, because it’s (playing for Canada) different than if that’s my job, like here, if I am not getting my opportunity, maybe that’s frustrating. But, with Canada, if it happens, great. If it doesn’t happen, I’d be disappointed, but life goes on. I would love to have that opportunity, but my main focus right now is with Orebro and doing the best that I can do here. I know if I work hard and give everything and I keep improving and just do what I am good at, that sooner or later the pieces are going to fall into place.” But, as Chencinski is a dual Israel-Canadian citizen, you wonder if time has run out. If Chencinski was to be put into the position where he’d be asked to choose Israel over Canada, remember this: For years he waited for his shot with Canada and it never came. To villify him wouldn’t be fair at all.
