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Achievements |
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With Hapoel Petah Tikva: |
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Toto Cup (2): 1989/90; 1990/91 |
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With Maccabi Tel Aviv: |
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Ligat ha'Al (Premier League) Championship (2): 1991/92; 1994/95 |
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Israel State Cup: 1993/94 |
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Toto Cup (2): 1992/93; 1998/99 |
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With Maccabi Haifa: |
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Ligat ha'Al (Premier League) Championship (2): 2000/01; 2001/02 |
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Toto Cup: 2001/02 |
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Personal Life |
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Grant is married to Israeli television personality Tzofit Grant. They have a son and a daughter.
Grant’s father, Meir, was born in Poland and deported to Siberia during the Second World War. His mother Aliza Nisan, is an Iraqi Jewish immigrant who met Meir in Petach Tikvah. Most of his father's family was murdered during the Holocaust. His mother Aliza Nisan, is an Iraqi Jewish immigrant who met Meir in Petach Tikvah Days before the League Cup final, it was Grant's father's 80th birthday, so Avram Grant bought tickets for Meir to go to Wembley and watch his son's first final as a manager Grant says that Meir is his biggest idol because he is so optimistic even at 80, and even after surviving the Holocaust. On February 20, 2008, Chelsea Football Club announced that Grant had received anti-semiotic death threats from unknown sources. One of the packages sent to Grant's home was said to have contained a lethal white powder and one of the notes said that Grant would "die a very slow and painful death". There were also threats of a sexual nature outlined against Grant's wife. |
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| BIOGRAPHY |
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Career |
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England |
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In October 2005, Grant announced that he would step down from the national team as his contract was due to expire in June of the following year. Subsequently, he took up the position of Technical Director at Portsmouth in June 2006, overseeing Harry Redknapp's side. |
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Chelsea FC: A personal friend of Roman Abramovich, on 8 July 2007 to the shocks of the British and world press, Avram Grant was appointed Director of Football at Chelsea FC. After the departure of the “special one” José from Chelsea on September 20, 2007, Grant was assigned the manager's role, with Steve Clarke, and later Henk ten Cate (on October 11, 2007) as his assistants, and becoming the first Israeli to manage an English football club.
A number of Chelsea fans did not take well to Grant's appointment. They protested Mourinho's departure, holding banners at games, which read "Mourinho - The Special One", and chanting Mourinho's nameChelsea FC have stated that some of the protests directed towards Grant constituted abuse of a racist nature. Bruce Buck, chairman of Chelsea, claims they have received points of view that are racist and anti-Semitic. Buck stated: "[This] unfairly smears the reputation of the vast majority of the Chelsea fans who rightly do not want to be associated with such activity." However, many Chelsea fans felt their objections against Grant being appointed as the team's manager are justified, citing his "lack of expertise at the highest levels of football" and Grant's lack of a formal UEFA qualification as manager. Several unnamed Chelsea players have been quoted as saying Grant's methods are "25 years behind the times" and "Chelsea deserve a bigger coach than him. Grant does not have the quality to coach a team like this. When we play big opponents we will suffer because of him." At least one member of Grant's coaching staff told friends that they will consider leaving the club if there is no further change in management
Grant faced his first game only 3 days after taking up the manager's role, losing 2–0 to Manchester United on 24 September. At his first UEFA Champions League match as a coach (with Chelsea and in general) he led Chelsea to a 2–1 away win over Valencia, replicating one of Mourinho's most celebrated wins.[11] Chelsea went on to register a 16-game unbeaten run under Grant, including beating Manchester City 6-0 in one of Chelsea's biggest wins. Subsequently, Grant was offered and signed a four-year contract with Chelsea in December 2007.
In January 2008, Nicolas Anelka from Bolton Wanderers F.C., Branislav Ivanovic from Lokomotiv Moscow, and Franco Di Santo from Audax Italiano were added to Grant's team.
In February, Chelsea reached the 2008 League Cup final, its first competition final under Grant's management. They lost 2-1 to Tottenham Hotspur at Wembley Stadium on February 24, with an extra time winner from centre-back Jonathan Woodgate. On March 8, at Barnsley FC, Chelsea was eliminated from the F.A Cup 1-0. On March 23, Grant secured his first win against one of the other big four clubs when Chelsea came from behind after two substitutions that were ridiculed by Chelsea fans to beat Arsenal FC 2-1. On April 26, Grant got his second big win when Chelsea beat Manchester United 2-1, to pull Chelsea into a tie at the top of the Premier League with two games remaining in the season.
On April 30, 2008, Grant's Chelsea beat Liverpool F.C. 3-2 (4-3 on aggregate) to advance to the UEFA Champions League final, something they failed to achieve under former manager Jose Mourinho. The game will be played in the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, Russia against Premier League rivals Manchester United on May 21, 2008. This meant that Grant has become Chelsea's most successful European manager in the history of the club. |
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Israel |
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Grant's professional coaching career started at age 18, in 1972, as youth coach of his home-town team, Hapoel Petah Tikva. In 1986, After a 14-year stretch at this job, he was promoted to first team coach, leading the club to two Toto Cup victories, in 1990 and 1991, thus bringing Hapoel Petah Tikva back to the top of Israeli football after nearly 25 years. During this era Petah Tikva fought regularly for the championship against Shlomo Sharf's Maccabi Haifa. In his last season in Petah Tikva, Grant lost both the championship and the Israel State Cup within 3 days to Maccabi Haifa, in a chain of events which is commonly known in Israel as "the Double robbery".\The next year the club won its first major title in 30 years, by winning its second-ever Israeli cup.
The following season Grant moved to coach the most decorated team in Israel: Maccabi Tel Aviv ,Avram was the last hope for the famous club that did not won anything in the 13 years before his arrival. He won the championship in his first season with them, with a 13-point advantage over the second place team. Maccabi Tel Aviv lost out closely in the final of the Israeli cup and was thus denied a historic double. The cup was won by Maccabi Tel Aviv under Grant's control, however, in 1994, followed with another Ligat ha'Al championship in 1995.
Following this, Grant moved to Hapoel Haifa, finishing fourth in the Israeli championship. Grant returned to Maccabi Tel Aviv between 1997 and 2000, winning the Toto Cup in 1999.
Grant moved to Maccabi Haifa in 2000, where he coached until 2002. There, he led the team to great success, winning the championship in 2001 and 2002, as well as the Toto Cup in 2002, whilst narrowly missing out on the Israeli cup, to miss winning the treble. |
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Israeli national team: After leaving Haifa in 2002, Grant became the youngest national team coach of Israel, replacing the former Denmark coach Richard Møller Nielsen. Although not qualifying for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Israel finished third in their qualifying group behind winners France and runners-up Switzerland. Israel missed on qualification to the finals, despite remaining undefeated in the group with four wins and six draws. |
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Management Style |
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Grant is known in Israel for giving a chance to young players in almost every club he has coached. He is described as a “player’s coach” and his players are rumored to have the utmost loyalty for him. Grant famously did not include Israeli star Eyal Berkovic in the national squad during 2005, saying he wanted to create "a younger team”, a move that was supported by most of the Israelis fans, but, nonetheless, retaining 34 year-old Avi Nimni. In 2007, the annoyed Berkovic described the way Grant became Chelsea's manager as "disgusting" and "disrespectful. Another known bitter and indignant critic of Grant in Israel is Shlomo Sharf, who was Israel's coach during most of the nineties.
Grant, is, is considered one of the most successful Israeli coaches ever. He has a reputation of a lucky winner in Israel, which caused the invention of the frequently used humorous term 'Hatachat shel Avram'. This means 'Avram's arse', a reference to the allegedly large amount of luck Grant enjoyed during the 2006 World Cup campaign.
Congolese forward Lomana LuaLua, presently of Olympiakos, stated that it was Grant's encouragement and emotional support that kept him from ending his career after the loss of his son Yoshuha to pneumonia. Grant was director of football at Portsmouth F.C. during LuaLua's stint at the club. |
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