Hapoel Hadera put out the first squad list of a new, humbler era on Tuesday, naming 23 players for the club's opening assignment of the season — an early-round State Cup tie against Beitar Nordia Jerusalem this evening, ONE reported.

The match, at Har Homa in Jerusalem (18:00 kick-off), doubles as the first competitive test for new head coach Amir Nosbaum, who takes charge of a club trying to rebuild from the bottom up.

Hadera enter the season in Liga Alef, the third tier, for the first time since 2016/17 — the campaign in which they topped the Northern Regional division and launched a rise that, remarkably, carried them into Ligat Ha'al by 2018 after decades away from the top flight.

That climb has since reversed just as sharply. The club finished bottom of Ligat Ha'al in 2024/25 and were relegated to Liga Leumit, then dropped straight through that division and into Liga Alef the following season — successive relegations that have reset Hadera to roughly where they stood a decade ago.

New ownership has come with the fall. Itay Ben-Zev, chairman of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, took over the club earlier this year, with Asi Kutin installed as CEO and spokesman and Assi Rachamim representing the ownership group on the board, according to ONE.

Nosbaum was the new regime's first managerial appointment. He built his coaching career as an assistant to Barak Bachar at Hapoel Be'er Sheva during the club's back-to-back championship seasons, before head-coaching stints that included Hapoel Petah Tikva, Beitar Tel Aviv/Bat Yam and Kiryat Shmona.

He is assisted at Hadera by Uri Azulai, with a backroom staff that ONE lists as including team manager Yitzhak Tapiro, analyst Nati Greenberg, goalkeeping coach Nimrod Cohen and physiotherapist Oren Amrani.

The 23 named for tonight are Niv Ohayon, Yehonatan Idelberg, Karem Arshid, Nehorai Buchnik, Ili Ben Hamo, Rafael Ben Tzion, Yanai Ben Shushan, Yuval Dayan, Ohad Damari, Roy Zherzhevsky, Uri Zaretzki, Uri Tako, Almog Yamharan, Binyam Mulao, Izzy Niv-Hansen, Omer Sulimani, Amit Siman Tov, Guy Paper, Ido Karbas, Amit Keren, Lavi Shukron, Yoav Turjeman and Raz Tamar.

ONE noted the squad could still grow by up to two more players, depending on tonight's result and recommendations from the coaching staff — a sign the roster is still being finalised this early in preseason.

For now, the State Cup trip to face Nordia Jerusalem is simply the first look at Nosbaum's group in a competitive fixture, with the Liga Alef campaign proper still to come.