Sportsנילי נאתכו

Nili Natcho

Nili Natcho was a Circassian-Israeli basketball player who played for Maccabi Raanana and Elitzur Ramla and for Israel's national team.

1982 to 2004Circassian-Israeli basketball playerPlaying for Maccabi RaananaIsrael at the 2003 European Championship

Born: 18 February 1982, Kfar Kama
Died: 5 November 2004
Occupation: basketball player
Education: Wingate Institute

Nili Natcho was born in 1982 in Kfar Kama

Natcho was born in 1982 in Kfar Kama, a Circassian village in northern Israel, to a Circassian Muslim family. Her cousin is the footballer Bibras Natcho. She played futsal as a girl and trained at the Wingate Institute.

When she was 14, her family moved to Even Yehuda so she could play on the local girls team. In her first season the team won the State Cup, its first title. She then played for 3 years at Ostrovsky High School in Ra'anana, which won the national high school championship in 2000.

In 2000 she joined Maccabi Raanana in the Premier League and was later named discovery of the season. The team won the State Cup in her first 2 seasons, and in 2001/02 she averaged 13.7 points per game. In 2003 she moved with coach Tal Nathan to Elitzur Ramla, which won the national cup that season.

She was first called up to Israel's senior national team in 2002 and played at the 2003 European Championship in Greece. She died on November 5, 2004, in a car accident on Highway 767 near Kfar Kama. Her sister Diana and her cousin Raja Tlash also died.