Ronny Rosenthal
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Ronny Rosenthal (sometimes spelled Ronnie/Roni Rosenthal) (Hebrew: רוני רוזנטל, born October 11, 1963, in Haifa) was a famous Israeli footballer.
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[edit] Career
Born and raised in Haifa, he soon joined the local club, Maccabi Haifa F.C. He started playing at the age of 11 in the junior team. At the age of 16, he was promoted to the senior squad for a match as a substitute and grabbed the opportunity with both hands scoring twice. After that showing, he remained in the senior squad and was also selected for the junior national team.
Shlomo Sharf was hired as the manager for season 1983/84. Rosenthal led the team as one of three strikers, winning two consecutive league championships before taking off for Europe. At that time he was also selected for the Israeli national team.
Rosenthal moved to the Belgium side Club Brugge at the end of the 1985/86 season, for a transfer fee of $275K. A couple of years later he moved to Standard Liege as part of an exchange deal. In the midst of the 1989/90 season he was loaned out to the English side Luton Town, where he was spotted by Liverpool which loaned him for the rest of the season. He quickly made an impact at Liverpool that year scoring a hat-trick on his debut and assisting the club in winning the Football League championship of 1990, chipping in with 7 goals in 8 matches. Immediately after that, Liverpool bought him for a fee of £1.1m. Ronny Rosenthal was the club's top reserve team goalscorer during the 1990/91 season with 18 goals in 25 appearances. At that time he earned his nickname Rocket Ronny. He stayed at Liverpool for 4 additional seasons, until moving to Tottenham Hotspur in January 1994, for a fee of £250k.
He stayed at Tottenham for four full seasons and scored a number of important goals including a hat-trick after coming on as a substitute. in an FA Cup match at Southampton.
After the 1997/98 season, Rocket Ronny was transferred to Watford for a free transfer and helped promote Watford from Division 1 to the Premier League. He suffered from injuries, particularly in the 1998/99 season, in which he played only 5 matches. Plagued by injuries, he decided to retire at the age of 36.
He is also remembered for a hilarious miss whilst playing for Liverpool during the 1992/1993 season against Aston Villa. Having already beaten the keeper, he amazingly hit the crossbar of the open goal from 10 yards out.
[edit] Clubs
- Maccabi Haifa (Israel) (1983-1986)
- Club Brugge (Belgium) (1986-1988)
- Standard Liege (Belgium) (1988-1990)
- Luton Town (England) (1990)
- Liverpool (England) (1990-1994)
- Tottenham Hotspur (England) (1994-1997)
- Watford (England) (1997-1999)
[edit] Milestones
- 2 Israeli Premier division championships, 1983/1984 & 1984/1985 with Maccabi Haifa.
- Belgian premier division championship, 1987/1988 with Club Brugge.
- Football League championship, 1989/1990 with Liverpool.
[edit] Career highlights
- Overall 38 goals for Maccabi Haifa.
- Overall 85 goals for European clubs.
- 11 international goals for the Israel National Football Team.
- Israel National Team: 60 international caps (41 full caps).
- Reaching UEFA Cup quarter-finals with Club Brugge in 1987/1988.
- Rosenthal's first appearance for Liverpool - 4-0 vs. Charlton Athletic with a hat-trick.
- France vs. Israel in Paris (1993) - Israel win away 3:2 with Ronny Rosenthal assisting all 3 goals.
- On his first full appearance for Tottenham, Rosenthal scored with a stunning 20-meter header against Sheffield Wednesday.
- FA Cup quarter-final, Southampton vs. Tottenham (1994/1995). Transforming a two goal deficit at half-time to 6-2 in favor of Tottenham scoring a hat-trick in the process.
- Azerbaijan vs. Israel (1996). A spectacular individual goal, taking the ball from inside the Israeli penalty box, all the way past the keeper and into the net. Israelis chose this as their "Millennium Goal".
- Watford vs Blackpool - 1997/98. Another brilliant individual goal, running through the whole defence to score.
[edit] Personal data
- Nationality: Israel.
- Date of birth: October 11, 1963.
- Height: 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
- Weight: 132 lb (60 kg)
- Personal status: Married with 2 children.
- Matches played for the national team (caps): 60.
- International goals in the national team: 11.
- Current occupation: Footballers Agent
