Nahum Stelmach
Stelmach (left) with Yochanan Vollach in 1959
Personal information
Full name Nahum Stelmach
Date of birth (1936-07-19)July 19, 1936
Place of birth Petah Tikva, British Mandate of Palestine (now Israel)
Date of death March 27, 1999(1999-03-27) (aged 62)
Position(s) Right forward
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1951–1969 Hapoel Petah Tikva[1] 349 (154)
1969–1970[1] Bnei Yehuda[3] 18 (4)
1970 Hapoel Herzliya F.C. 1 (1)
International career
1956–1968[2] Israel[2] 61 (22)
Managerial career
1967–1969 Hapoel Petah Tikva (Player-manager)
1987–1988 Hapoel Petah Tikva (General Manager)
1999 Israel
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Nahum Stelmach (Hebrew: נחום סטלמך‎; (1936-07-19)July 19, 1936 – (1999-03-27)March 27, 1999) was an Israeli footballer and manager.[4]

Biography

Stelmach was born in Petah Tikva, British Mandate of Palestine (now Israel), to a Jewish family. He was chosen third by Yediot Aharonot's greatest Israeli footballers. He made a name for himself as the leader of Hapoel Petah Tikva. At the height of his career in Hapoel Petah Tikva, Stelmach received offers to sign for Arsenal and Fenerbahçe but declined due to his loyalty to the team. He led his team to five national championships, four of them consecutive.

His most recognizable attribute was the quality of his headers, with which he scored most of his international goals. As a result, he was commonly nicknamed "the golden head" in Israel.

He scored what was arguably his most famous goal for the Israel national team in an Olympic qualifier against The USSR, with Lev Yashin as goalkeeper at the Ramat Gan Stadium on 1956. Despite the fact that Israel lost the game 2:1 (his goal was a temporary equalizer), and that the game was not televised, that goal is widely considered a defining moment in the history of Israel's national team's early years.

Coach

He was the trainer of Hapoel Haifa in the 1970s, while training the international stars Yochanan Vollach and Itzhak Englander.

Honors

References

  1. ^ a b נחום סטלמך (in Hebrew)
  2. ^ a b Stelmach Nahum Archived 2009-04-17 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ נחום סטלמך Archived 2007-11-19 at the Wayback Machine (in Hebrew)
  4. ^ "Sporting Heroes: No. 49 Nahum Stelmach".


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