Nahum Stelmach

Nahum Stelmach
Personal information
Full name	Nahum Stelmach
Date of birth	July 19, 1936
Place of birth	Petah Tikva, British Mandate of Palestine (now Israel)
Date of death	March 27, 1999 (aged 62)
Position(s)	Right forward
Senior career*
Years	Team
1951–1969	Hapoel Petah Tikva
1969–1970	Bnei Yehuda
National team
1956–1968	Israel
Teams managed
1967–1969	Hapoel Petah Tikva (Player-manager)
1987–1988	Hapoel Petah Tikva (General Manager)
1999	Israel
	* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Nahum Stelmach (Hebrew: נחום סטלמך‎; (1936-07-19)July 19, 1936 – (1999-03-27)March 27, 1999) was an Israeli footballer and manager.^[4]

Stellmach (on left); 1959

Biography[]

Stelmach was born in Petah Tikva, British Mandate of Palestine (now Israel), to a Jewish family. He was chosen third by Yediot Aharonot's greatest Israeli footballers. He made a name for himself as the leader of Hapoel Petah Tikva. At the height of his career in Hapoel Petah Tikva, Stelmach received offers to sign for Arsenal and Fenerbahçe but declined due to his loyalty to the team. He led his team to five national championships, four of them consecutive.

His most recognizable attribute was the quality of his headers, with which he scored most of his international goals. As a result, he was commonly nicknamed "the golden head" in Israel.

He scored what was arguably his most famous goal for the Israeli national football team in an Olympic qualifier against The USSR, with Lev Yashin as goalkeeper at the Ramat Gan Stadium on 1956. Despite the fact that Israel lost the game 2:1 (his goal was a temporary equalizer), and that the game was not televised, that goal is widely considered a defining moment in the history of Israel's national team's early years.