Yohanan Sukenik

Yohanan Sukenik

Personal information
Full name	Yohanan Sukenik
Date of birth	1909 (1909)
Place of birth	Łódź, Russian Poland
Date of death	18 January 1986(1986-01-18) (aged 75–76)
Place of death	Israel
Position(s)	Half back
Youth career
1923–1927	Nordia Tel Aviv
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1927–1940	Hapoel Tel Aviv
International career
1934–1938	Eretz Israel	4	(1)
Managerial career
1945	Hapoel Ramat Gan
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Yohanan Sukenik (Hebrew: יוחנן סוקניק) was a Jewish footballer, who played for Hapoel Tel Aviv and Mandatory Palestine national football team.[1]

Biography

Sukenik was born in Łódź, then part of the Russian Empire and immigrated to Mandatory Palestine with his family in 1923.[2] A keen footballer, he joined Maccabi Tel Aviv's youth team, Nordia. In 1927 he moved to Hapoel Tel Aviv, with whom he played until retiring in 1940.[2] With the Hapoel Tel Aviv, Sukenik won 4 championships and 5 cups.

Sukenik was also part of the Mandatory Palestine national football team, playing four matches for the team, two against Egypt in 1934, scoring the consolation goal for Mandatory Palestine in a 1–4 defeat,[3][4] and two against Greece in 1938, including appearing as a substitute the first match between the teams.[5]

Sukenik retired in 1940, as he felt that playing football was damaging his feet and settled in Ramat Gan, where he worked as a builder. He tried his hand in coaching Hapoel Ramat Gan, but quit the position as he considered his players weren't making the effort to train properly and quit football altogether.[2]

Honours

• League Championships (4):
  • 1933–34, 1934–35, 1937–38, 1940
• Cup (5):
  • 1928, 1934, 1937, 1938, 1939

References

1. National Team Player Details – Sukenik Yohanan IFA (in Hebrew)
2. "5 Years I Haven't Seen Hapoel T.A…." Hadshot HaSport, 10 February 1957 (in Hebrew)
3. Photographic Memory Asher Goldberg, 30 June 2002, Haaretz (in Hebrew)
4. 1934 – Egypt Football Team in Tel Aviv Asher Goldberg, 2 January 2012, IFA (in Hebrew)
5. An Historic Correction: The Line-Up Against Greece in 1938 Archived 2010-11-22 at the Wayback Machine Asher Goldberg, 22 November 2010, IFA (in Hebrew)