If you have spent time on Caulfield Park on any Sunday morning, like most of us have, you may have noticed this "young" man stopping his dog from eating all of the hot dogs at the kiosk.
You may not have given it much thought as to why he is there every Sunday morning, without knowing that he has been playing football at "Maccabee", as he calls it, since 1973. That's right, over 50 years ago, and he is still playing!
His name is Walter, and he has been spoken of in fondness by other Maccabi veterans around the club, so it was about time that Walter had his chance to tell his Maccabi story.
Given that he has 50+ years of history to tell we couldn't find anything to edit out from his testimony, we just sat back, read it and enjoyed it immensely as we hope that you do too.
My name is Walter Borghi and I am 65 years old. I have always loved kicking a (round) ball around since I was two years old in London and my parents had to take me outside so I didn't break things. My dad also played soccer although his true love was tennis. We moved around a fair bit with my dad's career as a biochemist and doing his PhD. So I was often starting new schools. But I had no problem integrating at schools because I just loved to go out and play soccer with my classmates wherever I was and that got me in. I went to three or four schools in Canada alone where I also picked up baseball and ice hockey as did my dad.
We came to Australia when I was 10 years old and again I loved playing soccer (my cricket game was somewhat spoiled by cross bat from baseball). My mother had put me in Yeshivah college where there were several good players across the years to make up a school soccer team which I joined when I finally grew big enough - maybe around Form 3 or 4. Around that time the Yeshivah team played Mount Scopus - we got beaten about 4 nil but I remember our coach - Mr Shimon Manchari of the first felafel shop down Carlisle st and now runs the restaurant at Kimberely - said "it could have been worse".
Then myself and 3 others from my class decided to join the Maccabee soccer club. This was around 1973-1974. I went there with Yossi New, Isaac Balbin and David Bierenkrantz. My first memory on the day we rocked up is we were taking turns kicking at goals and this scrawny kid comes late and runs onto the field and someone kicks the ball to him and from a difficult angle from quite far out he cracks a beautiful shot that went past the goalie. I stared open mouthed at that. That was David Efron who was a commanding player in midfield.
I never saw myself as a great player in the sense of a creative aggressive midfielder or forward but I was a reasonably good defender relying on speed, reflexes and good anticipation and I often took the ball forward to put in a cross. My dribbling usually relied on fast reflexes and running to keep the ball away from opponents.
But I really loved playing alongside my very capable teammates. The picture below is from when we won the Victorian Amateur championships in 1981.
The man with his hand covering his face is Danny Fridman who was our captain coach for many years - the toughest soccer player I knew who never gave up and would play though injuries as if they were nothing. On his left is David Efron who teamed with Clive (front row on his haunches second from the right next to Bradley Wein to form a very capable midfield. Clive was our first South African import who strengthen our team immensely with his deep skills and leadership - he may have been captain that year. Our other capable midfield players were the silky smooth Stephen Bloch looking over my right shoulder in the picture, and Henry Zelman (sitting front left in track pants) whose mouth was as sharp as his game, Johnny Roth (far left) who also played forward was very measured and accurate (good traits for a dentist!) and also played forward and Morry Kalkopf who was very solid (pun intended). Who could forget Buby Kraus with his explosive sideways run and shooting - I now play with his son Yoni who is less explosive but more skilled and similarly a pleasure to play with - he dribbles around me like I wasn't there ... almost.
Streaming down the wings were Bradley Wein (front row sitting right) and Alex Zwier (left shoulder of the goal keeper - not sure about the spelling) who were very strong players and could run forever at speed to get the ball forward or catch up to a forward ball and put in a cross.
Max Lichtenbaum was the goalie who always seemed to be yelling at us but was an excellent goalie as well as being very good on the field - he also coached my daughter and her team in the first year Maccabee started accepting girls. There were the Meleck brothers - Moshe with the big afro on my left in the middle with his arm on my arm (yes I had hair in those days), one waving behind the goalie in green and Shimon crouching next to Clive. There were four of them and if you upset one they'd all come after you but they were also big hearted.
In defence I could always rely on Dixie Diamond (with the headband) who had an excellent read of the game and anticipation so he was always in the right place at the right time.
And up the back of the picture (second from the right) with gray hair is Max Stern - don't know how old he was then - he was already frail but he came on occasionally as a cameo.
I stopped playing for a while when I had kids around 30 years old - around the 1990s - but then an inter synagogue game showed me how unfit I was - I lasted 5 minutes before getting puffed. So I resolved to get back into soccer.
I joined an over 30's Maccabee team consisting of different players - my memory is hazy so apologies to those I omit it's not intentional - Gideon Rathner, Tsvika Kalb, Femar, Gideon Josefsberg and sometimes his brother Yosi, Steven and Philip, maybe Johny Fishbein as goalie. This was also when there was an influx of South African players who were amazing - a very strong Alon Cohen, a fast and skillful Harold, Collin who would run the wing and Mervyn Kark who was solid despite missing ligaments in his knee. Our fortunes were mixed but we won our fair share and it was always fun.
Since around 2000 give or take I've been playing in what started as the schleppers at Caulfield Park where I always played in the off season. But that's a whole different story with some crossover especially in the off season but not much.
Below are a couple of pictures of me playing last month - June 2024. On average I run about 5-6km in a game which is good enough for me now. I used to admire older players who still played and now I'm that 'older player' - the other players are in their 20's and 30's but I feel I can mostly hold my own. I still love playing soccer and occasionally surprise other players and myself with what remains of my speed and skills. These days finishing a game and having fun is what constitutes a good game for me. My advice is don't ever stop.
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