Beitar brings back familiar face in Cohen

Sharon Mimer was fired four days before Beitar began its Premier League campaign.

By ALLON SINAI
Beitar Jerusalem named Eli Cohen as a professional adviser (photo credit: ADI AVISHAI)
Beitar Jerusalem named Eli Cohen as a professional adviser
(photo credit: ADI AVISHAI)
Beitar Jerusalem named Eli Cohen as a professional adviser on Sunday, hiring the veteran coach to work together with Gili Lavenda, who will continue as head coach after replacing the sacked Sharon Mimer on an interim basis.
Mimer was fired four days before Beitar began its Premier League campaign after falling out with club owner Eli Tabib. Lavenda, who had been working as Mimer’s assistant, was initially named as an interim coach.
But after guiding the team to two straight wins to start the season, something which Beitar hadn’t managed in six years, Tabib and club boss Eli Ohana decided to keep him at the helm on a full-time basis, while appointing a more experienced professional to work by his side.
The 66-year-old Cohen returns to Beitar after three previous tenures as the club’s head coach. He led the team to the league title in 1996/97 and helped it avoid relegation in 2002 and 2012.
“As soon as Eli Ohana, Beitar Jerusalem’s and Israeli soccer’s greatest icon, approaches you and asks you to come and help Beitar, you don’t ask any questions,” Cohen told the club’s website. “This club has always been close to my heart and is like a home to me.”