From the World of Sports

Two stories from sports involving Israeli athletes have gained attention. First, in Turkey, 500,000 Fenerbahce football respondents to an Instagram challenge by Israeli star Eran Zahavi leaves them hoping he’ll come play for them.

After scoring ‘an equalizer goal’ in Israel’s Nations League match against Scotland, Zahavi posted ‘It’s always a special feeling to score in the Nations game.’ To which the Dutch soccer orientated social media site ‘433’ posted this request to Zahavi: “Come to Fenerbahce!” Interestingly, this request comes from the football club in Istanbul, Turkey.

A country that has been at odds with Israel since 2003 and the coming to power of Recep Erdogan.

Zahavi threw out a challenge to the request to get 500,000 likes to the post for him to come, “Let’s try,” he said. The post received over 1 million likes for him to come in one day! Turkey was the seventh leading country for Israeli exports in 2019, and Istanbul’s Fenerbahce hopes that Zahavi will be another Israeli export to their country soon.

In the United States, US born Israeli pitcher, Dean Kremer, pitched the

Baltimore Orioles to a 5-1 victory in his debut against the New York Yankees. On Sunday, he became the first Israeli citizen to “play in the major leagues.” Of his achievement he said, “I was born here in the United States [to Israeli parents] but I go back and practically live in Israel for two months in the summer, so it’s definitely home.” In his post game interview, he began speaking Hebrew for his family and friends in Israel.

In many ways Israel makes an impact around the world, including in the world of sports.

(Source: The Times of Israel)