Tal Banin

Tal Banin was born in 1971 in Haifa

Tal Banin was born on 7 March 1971 in Kiryat Haim, Haifa. His father Menachem Banin was of Yemenite origin, and his mother Esther came from Egypt. His uncle was the football coach Roni Dora.

He began in the youth teams of Hapoel Haifa and played for its senior side in the second division from 1987 to 1989. In 1989 he moved to Maccabi Haifa, where he won the league and the State Cup and was named Player of the Year in 1991. He later played again for Hapoel Haifa and spent a season with Cannes in France.

In 1997 he joined Brescia and became the first Israeli to play in Italy's Serie A, though a knee injury troubled him. With Maccabi Tel Aviv he won the State Cup in 2001 and 2002 and the league in 2003. In 2003 coach Nir Klinger removed him and Avi Nimni from the team, and he later played for Bnei Yehuda, Beitar Jerusalem and Maccabi Netanya.

He debuted for Israel on 16 May 1990 against the USSR and scored in a 3 to 2 win. He captained the national team from 1997 and scored 12 goals for it.

In 2008 he became assistant coach at Maccabi Petah Tikva and then coached Israel's youth team. He was assistant to Luis Fernández with the national team from 2010 and later coached Hapoel Haifa, Maccabi Netanya, Maccabi Ahi Nazareth and Bnei Sakhnin. He entered the Israeli Football Hall of Fame in 2009.