Ronny Levy

Ronny Levy

Personal information
Date of birth	(1966-11-14) 14 November 1966
Place of birth	Netanya, Israel
Playing position	Defensive Midfielder
Club information
Current team	Anorthosis Famagusta (manager)
Youth career
	Maccabi Netanya
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1985–1992	Maccabi Netanya	156	(12)
1990–1991	→ Bnei Yehuda (loan)	20	(3)
1992–1997	Maccabi Haifa	144	(18)
National team
1993–1995	Israel[1]	16	(0)
Teams managed
1999–2000	Maccabi Haifa (assistant)
2000	Maccabi Haifa (caretaker)[2]
2000–2003	Maccabi Haifa (youth)
2003–2008	Maccabi Haifa
2008–2009	Maccabi Petah Tikva
2009–2010	Unirea Urziceni
2010–2011	Beitar Jerusalem
2011	Steaua Bucureşti
2011–2013	Anorthosis Famagusta
2013–2014	Beitar Jerusalem
2015	Maccabi Netanya
2015–2016	Maccabi Haifa
2016–	Anorthosis Famagusta
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.

Ronny Levy (Hebrew: רוני לוי‎‎; also spelled Roni; born 14 November 1966) is a former Israeli international football player and now works as a manager. Levy played in the position of defensive midfielder, and won championships with both Bnei Yehuda and Maccabi Haifa.

Playing career

Levy started his career as a striker in the youth teams of Maccabi Netanya. He was a prolific scorer and was promoted to the first team in 1985. After five seasons in the shadow of then domestic superstars Oded Machnes and David Lavi, he was loaned to Bnei Yehuda in the transfer window of season 1989–90, where he won his first championship title.

After two years back in Maccabi Netanya, Levy transferred to Maccabi Haifa in 1992 where he was positioned as a defender. After a few games his role was changed to defensive midfielder, the position he would occupy until the end of his playing career. Levy played a major role in Maccabi Haifa's championship in the season of 1993–94. He retired from playing in 1997 due to a serious injury of his knee.

International career

He has sixteen international caps with the Israeli national team.

As a manager

With retirement, Levy was given a coaching position in one of Maccabi Haifa's youth teams. After two years in the youth department, he was made assistant manager of the first team, under the management of Eli Cohen. Cohen resigned his position in the last stages of the 1999–2000 season, and was replaced by Levy for a few games. At the end of the season, Levy returned to the youth department, this time as head coach of the first youth team for the next three years, where he was very successful, making both cup and league titles in his last year there.

As the season of 2002–03 ended, and manager Itzhak Shum left the club to go to top Greek club Panathinaikos, Levy was given the position of first team manager. His appointment met serious doubts from both news media and fans, who suggested he was not experienced enough to fill one of the most desirable and prestigious roles in Israeli football.

Levy answered the critics with three domestic championships in a row in his first 3 years of managing Maccabi Haifa (2003–04, 2004–05, 2005–06), one Toto Cup Al (2006), and a qualification to the UEFA cup group stage in 2006–07.^[3]

Levy is one of the first managers in Israeli football to use computer software as a tool for measuring the players' performance and a means for tactical analysis. In 2006, Levy received a "manager of the year" award from both major Israeli newspapers, 'Yedioth Ahronoth and Maariv.^[4]

After seasons 2006–07, 2007–08 which were considered as failure after failing to challenge for the title, finishing 5th in both seasons, he decided to leave the club and was replaced by Elisha Levy.^[5]

On 22 December Levy signed with Maccabi Petah Tikva for a year and a half. One the 22nd of November after less than a year with the Petah Tikva side Levy decided to quit.^[6]

On 31 December 2009 Levy signed with Unirea Urziceni for a contract worth $600,000 to manage the team for a year and a half.^[7] His first game in charge was against Liverpool at Anfield in the UEFA Europa League on 18 February 2010 where the visitors lost 1–0.^[8]

On 17 January 2011, Levy signed with Beitar Jerusalem.^[9]

On 10 June 2011, Steaua Bucharest presented Ronny Levy as the new head coach of the team.^[10] He was fired on 30 September 2011 after a draw against AEK Larnaca in the UEFA Europa League. The next day, 1 October, he signed a contract for a year with Anorthosis Famagusta.^[11] He was sacked on 1 April 2013.^[12]

On 6 December 2013, Levy made his return to Beitar Jerusalem.

On 14 January 2015, Levy signed with Maccabi Netanya.^[13]

On 18 May 2015 Levy made his return to Maccabi Haifa his signed 3 years contract

On 26 October 2016 Levy made his return to Anorthosis his signed 18 months contract.

Statistics

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
				G	W	D	L	Win %
Maccabi Haifa (caretaker)		2000	2000	7000800000000000000♠8	7000300000000000000♠3	7000200000000000000♠2	7000300000000000000♠3	7001375000000000000♠37.50
Maccabi Haifa (youth)		2000	2003	7002100000000000000♠100	7001710000000000000♠71	7001130000000000000♠13	7001160000000000000♠16	7001710000000000000♠71.00
Maccabi Haifa		2003	2008	7002250000000000000♠250	7002132000000000000♠132	7001600000000000000♠60	7001580000000000000♠58	7001528000000000000♠52.80
Maccabi Petah Tikva		2008	2009	7001190000000000000♠19	7000400000000000000♠4	7000700000000000000♠7	7000800000000000000♠8	7001210500000000000♠21.05
Unirea Urziceni		2009	2010	7001270000000000000♠27	7000800000000000000♠8	7001110000000000000♠11	7000800000000000000♠8	7001296300000000000♠29.63
Beitar Jerusalem		2010	2011	7001170000000000000♠17	7000700000000000000♠7	7000500000000000000♠5	7000500000000000000♠5	7001411800000000000♠41.18
Steaua Bucureşti		2011	2011	7001140000000000000♠14	7000500000000000000♠5	7000500000000000000♠5	7000400000000000000♠4	7001357100000000000♠35.71
Anorthosis Famagusta		2011	2013	7001520000000000000♠52	7001340000000000000♠34	7001120000000000000♠12	7000600000000000000♠6	7001653790000000000♠65.38
Beitar Jerusalem		2013	2014	7001240000000000000♠24	7001100000000000000♠10	7000400000000000000♠4	7001100000000000000♠10	7001416700000000000♠41.67
Maccabi Netanya		2015	2015	7001160000000000000♠16	7000600000000000000♠6	7000500000000000000♠5	7000500000000000000♠5	7001375000000000000♠37.50
Maccabi Haifa		2015	2016	7001400000000000000♠40	7001170000000000000♠17	7001120000000000000♠12	7001110000000000000♠11	7001425000000000000♠42.50
Anorthosis Famagusta		2016		7000300000000000000♠3	7000200000000000000♠2	5000000000000000000♠0	7000100000000000000♠1	7001666700000000000♠66.67
Total				7002569000000000000♠569	7002299000000000000♠299	7002136000000000000♠136	7002134000000000000♠134	7001525500000000000♠52.55

Honours

As a Player

• Israeli Premier League (2):
  • 1989–90, 1993–94
• Israel State Cup (2):
  • 1993, 1995
• Toto Cup (1):
  • 1993–94

As a Manager

• Israeli Youth Championship (1):
  • 2002–03
• Youth State Cup (1):
  • 2003
• Israeli Premier League (3):
  • 2003–04, 2004–05, 2005–06
• Toto Cup (3):
  • 2001–02, 2005–06, 2007–08
• Liga I:
  • Runners-up (1): 2009–10
• Israel State Cup (1):
  • 2016

References