Reuven Atar

Reuven Atar

Atar with Maccabi Haifa
Personal information
Date of birth	(1969-01-03) 3 January 1969
Place of birth	Tirat Carmel, Israel
Position(s)	Midfielder
Team information
Current team	Hapoel Bnei Lod
Youth career
1977–1986	Maccabi Haifa
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1986–1994	Maccabi Haifa	198	(49)
1994–1997	Hapoel Haifa	69	(37)
1997	Beitar Jerusalem	1	(0)
1998–1999	Hapoel Petah Tikva	27	(5)
1999	Hapoel Haifa	5	(2)
2000	Beitar Jerusalem	16	(5)
2000–2002	Maccabi Haifa	66	(6)
2002–2003	Maccabi Netanya	21	(9)
International career
1989–1997	Israel	33	(3)
Managerial career
2003–2004	Maccabi Netanya (assistant)
2004–2006	Maccabi Netanya
2006	Maccabi Herzliya
2007–2008	Maccabi Netanya
2008–2009	Beitar Jerusalem
2009–2012	Maccabi Netanya
2012	Maccabi Haifa
2013	Maccabi Netanya
2014–2015	Hapoel Haifa
2015–2016	Maccabi Netanya
2017	Hapoel Afula
2017	Ashdod
2019–2020	Beitar Nes Tubruk (youth)
2020–	Hapoel Bnei Lod
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Reuven Atar (Hebrew: ראובן עטר; born 3 January 1969) is an Israeli football manager and former player who manages Bnei Lod. As a player, he played as a midfielder, most notably with Maccabi Haifa. As a manager, he had five spells with Maccabi Netanya.

Early life

Atar was born in Tirat Carmel, Israel, to Sephardic Jewish immigrant parents from Iraq. During his adolescence, he played football for the Maccabi Haifa youth club. For many, he is one of the greatest players to ever wear the Haifa colors.

Playing career

After playing eight seasons for Maccabi Haifa and winning three titles for the club (the Toto Cup, and the Israel State Cup twice – one of which as both a Cup and a championship title at the same year), he joined the local rival team – Hapoel Haifa for four seasons, before being signed off to Beitar Jerusalem. At Beitar he played only one match before being injured, which rendered him unable to play during the rest of the season.

In the next season, Atar moved to Hapoel Petah Tikva for a single season, before moving back to Hapoel Haifa and a few months later back to Beitar Jerusalem, where he became one of the most popular players. In 2000, he returned to Maccabi Haifa, winning two championships. Atar left Haifa for Maccabi Netanya before the 2002–03 season, the last team in his professional career as a player.

Coaching career

During the season at Maccabi Netanya, Atar was injured and decided to retire from his career as a player. He quickly signed as assistant coach at Maccabi Netanya, first alongside Gili Landau and later on Eli Cohen. At the end of the 2003–04 season, Cohen left the club, and Atar was chosen as the club's head-coach. Even though Netanya was relegated at the end of that season to the second league in Israel, Liga Leumit, Atar remained in his position and helped the club return to the Premier League after one season. In 2006, Atar was sent home by Netanya's new manager, Eyal Berkovich, and proceeded to move and coach Maccabi Herzliya, from which he was fired after eight league games before returning to Netanya, later guiding the club to the second place in the Israeli Premier League, and the UEFA Cup Qualifying rounds.

Atar was later dismissed from Netanya, after team's owner Daniel Jammer signed Lothar Matthäus.

In September 2008, he signed for Beitar Jerusalem replacing Itzhak Shum. Later that year he won the Israeli Cup, but was dismissed and replaced by Shum.

On 29 September 2009, Atar returned once again to Maccabi Netanya, making it his third stint as the manager of the club. On 7 May 2011, he broke Netanya's undefeated streak from 1971 as he managed the team for 16 straight games without losing a match.

On 23 April 2012, he signed a two-year contract for his home club of Maccabi Haifa. In 13 November he was sacked from Haifa.

On 19 March 2013, he returned to Maccabi Netanya for his fourth stint as the manager of the club.

In the start of the 2014–15 season he worked as the manager of Hapoel Haifa. He was fired after four months on the job.

On 6 November 2015, Atar returned to Maccabi Netanya for his fifth stint as the manager of the club.

Career statistics

Club

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition:

Club	Season	League		Israel State Cup		Toto Cup		Europe		Total
		Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Maccabi Haifa	1986–87	4	1	1	0	1	0
	1987–88	16	2	2	1	6	2
	1988–89	27	8	9	4	1	0
	1989–90	23	2	2	2	6	1
	1990–91	30	15	5	1	6	4	3	4
	1991–92	28	13	6	0	4	0
	1992–93	31	10	5	1	4	1
	1993–94	37	8	1	0	5	2	5	1
Hapoel Haifa	1994–95	19	5	3	2	2	2
	1995–96	27	21	2	1	2	1
	1996–97	6	1
Maccabi Haifa	1996–97	18	6	3	1	2
Hapoel Haifa	1997–98	11	5
Beitar Jerusalem	1997–98	1	0
Hapoel Petach Tikva	1998–99	27	5	4	0	5	2
Hapoel Haifa	1999–2000	5	2	0	0	0	0	3	0	8	2
Beitar Jerusalem	1999–2000	16	5	1	0	0	0	0	0	17	5
Maccabi Haifa	1999–2000	13	2	3	0	0	0	0	0	16	2
	2000–01	35	3	0	0	2	1	2	1	39	5
	2001–02	18	1	1	0	3	1	1	0	2	2
Maccabi Netanya	2002–03	21	9	0	0	3	2	0	0	24	11
Career total		423	113

International

Appearances and goals by national team and year

National team	Year	Apps	Goals
Israel	1989	2	0
	1990	3	0
	1991	0	0
	1992	1	0
	1993	12	1
	1994	6	0
	1995	3	1
	1996	5	1
	1997	1	0
Total		33	3

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

List of international goals scored by Reuven Atar

No.	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	13 October 1993	Parc des Princes, Paris, France	France		3–2	1994 FIFA World Cup 2004 qualifying
2	20 September 1995	Teddy Stadium, Jerusalem, Israel	Uruguay		3–1	Friendly
3	21 February 1996	Kiryat Eliezer Stadium, Haifa, Israel	Lithuania		4–2	Friendly

Managerial statistics

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
				P	W	D	L	Win %
Maccabi Netanya		21 February 2004	14 May 2006	94	38	23	33	040.43
Maccabi Herzliya		21 July 2006	7 November 2006	13	2	5	6	015.38
Maccabi Netanya		3 January 2007	1 June 2008	66	32	21	13	048.48
Beitar Jerusalem		3 September 2008	26 May 2009	45	23	8	14	051.11
Maccabi Netanya		29 September 2009	12 May 2012	112	47	27	38	041.96
Maccabi Haifa		1 July 2012	13 November 2012	13	3	6	4	023.08
Maccabi Netanya		19 March 2013	18 May 2013	6	2	2	2	033.33
Hapoel Haifa		12 May 2014	16 February 2015	30	10	5	15	033.33
Maccabi Netanya		6 November 2015	10 January 2016	9	0	4	5	000.00
Hapoel Afula		20 January 2017	2 August 2017	18	4	10	4	022.22
Ashdod		3 August 2017	3 October 2017	9	1	1	7	011.11
Total				414	162	111	141	039.13

Honours

Player

Maccabi Haifa

• Israeli Premier League: 1988–89, 1990–91, 1993–94, 2000–01, 2001–02
• State Cup: 1991, 1993; runner-up 1987, 1989, 2002
• Toto Cup: 1993–94

Manager

Maccabi Netanya

• Toto Cup (Leumit): 2004–05
• Israeli Second Division runner-up: 2004–05
• Israeli Premier League runner-up: 2006–07, 2007–08

Beitar Jerusalem

• State Cup: 2009

External links

• Reuven Atar at National-Football-Teams.com