Three months after his final match, in which he helped Maccabi Tel Aviv secure the Israeli Premier League title at Bloomfield Stadium, and after failing to find a club abroad, Eran Zahavi has made a final decision to retire from football and will announce it officially soon.
Two rounds before the end of the season, Zahavi unilaterally declared he would not continue with Maccabi Tel Aviv. He later held talks with Beitar Jerusalem but also hoped for an offer to return to Maccabi. When the club decided not to re-sign him, Zahavi sought opportunities abroad. He received several offers that did not meet his expectations and ultimately decided to hang up his boots.
Zahavi conducted advanced negotiations with clubs in Dubai and almost finalized a deal with Al-Nasr under his former coach Slaviša Jokanović, but the contract fell through at the last moment due to tensions with Iran. Zahavi had targeted the UAE or the U.S. as preferred destinations, but none of the offers aligned with his ambitions, leading to his decision to retire.
“Zahavi made the decision two weeks ago. He will announce it soon. It’s very hard for him to accept that he won’t continue playing football. We must remember he finished the season at the highest level: top scorer of the Premier League playoffs and league champion. That difficulty delayed the retirement announcement,” said one of his closest friends.
Zahavi scored 207 goals for Maccabi Tel Aviv across all competitions, including 150 in the Israeli Premier League, placing him second on the club’s all-time scoring list since Israel’s founding. He also scored 13 goals for Hapoel Ramat HaSharon, 41 during his successful stint with Hapoel Tel Aviv — including a championship-winning goal at Teddy Stadium and a remarkable strike in the 2010 Champions League — two in one and a half seasons with Palermo, 103 for Guangzhou, and 37 for Eindhoven.
He is also Israel’s all-time top scorer with 35 goals for the national team and ranks fifth in the Israeli Premier League all-time scoring list with 177 goals. In total, Zahavi has scored 438 career goals, a tally that will likely remain final following his retirement.