Sheran Yeini spent more than a decade marshalling Maccabi Tel Aviv's defence and wearing the captain's armband. These days his evenings are booked out by a rehearsal studio instead, but the club is clearly never far from his thoughts.
Speaking to ONE's "Conversation of the Day" during his run on the current season of Israel's Dancing with the Stars, Yeini said learning choreography has, in its own way, been tougher than anything football threw at him. He pointed to the precision the routines demand — the exact angle of a shoulder, the placement of a hand — as a different kind of hard than the physical grind of a match.
Asked whether he could see himself back at Maccabi in some role down the line, Yeini didn't close the door. "I don't rule out being there someday," he told the outlet.
He went further, floating the idea of working alongside Eran Zahavi, the club's former talisman and Israel's record goalscorer, who retired from playing this past January. "It would be fun if Eran and I combined forces at Maccabi someday, to contribute to the place," Yeini said.
It's a pairing with obvious resonance: Yeini as the long-time defensive lynchpin, Zahavi as the club's spearhead, both now several years removed from the pitch and, according to Yeini, both drawn toward business and investment ventures since hanging up their boots.
Yeini retired from professional football in May 2024 at 37, having captained Maccabi through campaigns of varying fortune. "Even with mediocre squads, we achieved accomplishments," he said of those years, a nod to a career that included Israeli league and cup silverware at Bloomfield Stadium.
He still shows up as a fan, telling ONE he catches roughly five Maccabi matches a season now, and joked that supporters have taken to voting for him on the dance show much as they once cheered him on the pitch.
The dancing itself has already produced one emotional moment: partnered with Karin Sorotzinski, Yeini opened the season by dancing to a song originally performed by his late father, the singer and actor Lior Yeini, who died in 2021 — a routine that scored 29 points on debut night, according to Israel Hayom's coverage of the premiere.
It isn't the first time Yeini has spoken publicly about a future in Maccabi's dugout rather than just the stands. In a separate interview with Sport1, he said his dream was to become "the Ferguson of Maccabi Tel Aviv," staying in charge for 25 to 27 years — the kind of long-term project he now suggests Zahavi might one day share with him.
