Menashe Zalka won the ‘badge of decency’ of Israeli football: “Excellence is not exiles, it is being human”

The captain of Hapoel Hadera, Menashe Zalka, was awarded today (Thursday) the ‘Sign of Fairness’ of Israeli football for the year 2024 on behalf of a special committee and led by the organization ‘The Pioneer – Education Through Sports’. The 33-year-old Zeleka was drafted into the reserves two days after the murderous terrorist attack on October 7, and served for 115 days as a metolist in the paratroopers, and during all this time he fought in the northern arena.
Zeleka, stopped his football career at the beginning of his career, in favor of three years of combat service, and since then he has been serving in the reserves regularly.

In the reasons of the committee, it is said that the choice is, among other things, following “his tremendous dedication to the war of iron swords for the people of Israel and the State of Israel and a significant reserve service, while renouncing his activity in the group”.

The awarding of the special badge was part of the events of the pioneer tournament to encourage fairness in sports, the event was attended by over 500 children from all over the country. The emotional Zelka said after receiving the trophy: “Thank you to everyone who chose me for the important title, thank you to Halutz – for what you do for Israeli society. As you at Halutz say – excellence is not about exiles, it is about the person.”

“The goal is to make our children better and more valuable people,” Zalka added. “We have a great influence and we need to use it in the right way, football is an important thing as such, but it is more important to be a human being, whoever is not a good person with values, whoever does not respect the parents, the environment, the teacher and the coach, he cannot succeed in life – to be a human being before the athlete, Without it, you cannot succeed in life, be good people.”

Starting in 2014, the “Pioneer” organization chose to award footballers in Israel with the “Sign of Fairness”. Zalka was chosen in a special poll that appeared on the Facebook page “Hechatz Shinoch Derech Sport”, the surfers’ votes made up 50% of the selection, while the other 50% were subject to the decision of the organization’s professional committee. Apart from Zalka, who was chosen based on the votes of the surfers and the votes of the committee, the other candidates were Gabi Kanikovsky from Maccabi Tel Aviv and Rotem Hatuel from Hapoel Be’er Sheva, who among the surfers won first place after a close battle with Zalka, but as mentioned along with the votes of the committee, Zalka won the letter.

The founder of “The Pioneers”, Omer Livnat: “Our goal is to promote a fair, sporting and better society in Israel, we see this enterprise, all the more so in such a challenging time since that black Sabbath, as a very important thing for soccer in Israel, and as a beacon for the soccer players who want to promote a good society More”.

“I want to express my appreciation to all the footballers who were nominated and of course to Menasha Zalka who won the title, it goes to Menasha for the person he is, the captain he is and the selection in the reserves during the war, I wish more children and athletes would learn from you, I am sure that tens of thousands of children see this ceremony and want to be like you”, added Birch. “Connecting the award to the Halutz games is the most natural and desirable thing, it’s the organization’s annual highlight event with hundreds of children who bring the values, fairness and play lady expression on the field and also see the sporting example of this – Menashe Zalka.”