Barak Bakhar
Bakhar with Red Star Belgrade in 2023
Personal information
Date of birth (1979-09-21) 21 September 1979
Place of birth Tzrufa, Israel
Height 1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)
Position(s) Defender
Youth career
Neve Yosef
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1998–2002 Hakoah Ramat Gan
2002–2004 Hapoel Petah Tikva 50 (0)
2004–2011 Ironi Kiryat Shmona 156 (2)
Managerial career
2012–2015 Ironi Kiryat Shmona
2015–2020 Hapoel Be'er Sheva
2020–2023 Maccabi Haifa
2023 Red Star Belgrade
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Barak Bakhar (Hebrew: ברק בכר; born 21 September 1979) is an Israeli football manager and former player.

Early and personal life

Bakhar was born in moshav Tzrufa, Israel, to a Turkish-born father of both Sephardi Jewish and Mizrahi Jewish descent, and to an Israeli-born mother of Ashkenazi Jewish (Polish-Jewish) descent. His uncle was the Israeli Minister of Tourism Rehavam "Gandhi" Ze'evi.

Bakhar is married, has three children, and resides in Holon, Israel.

Playing career

After going through the ranks of the youth system of Neve Yosef, Bakhar transferred to Liga Artzit side, Hakoah Ramat Gan.[1] After four seasons in the second tier of Israeli football, he made the jump to Hapoel Petah Tikva.

In 2004, Bakhar joined Liga Leumit side, Ironi Kiryat Shmona. He established himself in the starting line up on the right side of their defense and helped them gain promotion to Israeli Premier League, the highest tier of Israeli football. During the 2007–08 season, Bakhar played all but one league match for Kiryat Shmona, due to yellow card accumulation.

In October 2008, Bakhar was called up by national team manager, Dror Kashtan for the FIFA World Cup qualification matches against Luxembourg and Latvia. His call up was canceled though, being that he never completed his service in the IDF, a requirement of all Jewish players in order to represent Israel on the national side, and Eyal Meshumar was called up in his place.[2]

Bakhar cited that the IDF did not suit him as to why he did not complete his service. He told Israeli Yedioth Ahronoth, "they wanted to send me to a combat unit in the armor corps." Additionally, Sport 5 pointed out that Bakhar was not match fit and was expected to undergo surgery soon. This in turn embarrassed the Israel Football Association that they had missed all these items before announcing the pool of players called in for the qualification matches[3]

Managerial career

Bakhar managing Red Star Belgrade in 2023

On 3 October 2012, Bakhar was appointed manager of Hapoel Ironi Kiryat Shmona.[4] On 14 May 2015, he ended his contract. In the 2015–16 season, he was appointed of manager of Hapoel Be'er Sheva. He got Be'er Sheva to win the Israeli League for the first time in forty years after a 3–1 win against Bnei Sachnin. By winning the league, Be'er Sheva got in the UEFA Champions League for the first time and will start in the second qualifying round. He got Be'er Sheva into the third qualifying round of 2016–17 UEFA Champions League in a 3–2 win on aggregate against Sheriff Tiraspol. Then, he got Be'er Sheva secured a Europa League group stage position by stunning Greek side Olympiacos 1–0 on aggregate, the furthest they ever reached. In the playoff qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League, Badkar's Be'er Sheva lost 5–4 on aggregate to Celtic despite winning 2–0 at Turner Stadium. In the 2016–17 UEFA Europa League, Be'er Sheva made it in the round of 32 in the Europa League in second place behind Sparta Prague in Group K by getting famous results against Southampton and Inter Milan. Bakhar also won the Toto Cup for Be'er Sheva on 28 December 2016 beating his former club Hapoel Ironi Kiryat Shmona 4–1.

In 2022, Bakhar led Maccabi Haifa to the group stages of the Champions League for the first time in thirteen years after qualifying victories over Olympiakos, Apollon Limassol and former European Champions Red Star Belgrade.

In May 2023, Bakhar was appointed manager of Serbian SuperLiga side Red Star Belgrade, and was released from the team in December 2023 after derby loss to Partizan including failure to qualify to UEFA Champion League top 16[5]

Managerial statistics

As of 20 December 2023
Team Nat From To Record
GWDLWin %
Hapoel Ironi Kiryat Shmona Israel 3 October 2012 14 May 2015 102 59 23 20 057.84
Hapoel Be'er Sheva Israel 24 May 2015 6 January 2020 218 123 47 48 056.42
Maccabi Haifa Israel 8 July 2020 30 June 2023 151 98 20 33 064.90
Red Star Belgrade Serbia 29 May 2023 20 December 2023 28 18 2 8 064.29
Total 461 282 88 91 061.17

Honours

Player

Hakoah Maccabi Ramat Gan

Ironi Kiryat Shmona

Manager

Ironi Kiryat Shmona

Hapoel Be'er Sheva

Maccabi Haifa

See also

References

  1. ↑ Up until 1999, the top division of Israeli football was the Liga Leumit; since then, it has been Israeli Premier League.
  2. ↑ Sardis, Adi (5 October 2008). זימונו של ברק בכר בוטל, בגלל שלא השלים צבא: זימונו של ברק בכר בוטל (in Hebrew). Yedioth Ahronoth. Archived from the original on 8 October 2008. Retrieved 5 October 2008.
  3. ↑ Shifchotzky, Motti (5 October 2008). ברק בכר נכלל בסגל של דרור קשטן למרות שלא שירת בצה"ל (in Hebrew). Sport 5. Archived from the original on 6 October 2008. Retrieved 5 October 2008.
  4. ↑ אלבז, שמעון (10 March 2012). "שרצקי: "דברים ביני לבין גילי לא עבדו". צפו" – via Ynet.
  5. ↑ "Zvanično: Barak Bahar je novi trener Crvene zvezde, evo kako je predstavljen na Marakani" (in Serbian). telegraf.rs. 19 May 2023. Retrieved 19 May 2023.
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