Tomer Ginat has put his name to a new contract with Hapoel Tel Aviv that runs through the 2029/30 season, and the power forward made no secret of how he wants the story to end: in the same red jersey he has worn since he was a young pro.
"Hapoel has always been my home, a place I love very much, very dear to my heart," Ginat said in an interview with ONE published after the signing. "I have felt like I belong and am very connected to this place, since I was a child I remember myself as a Hapoel fan."
Asked directly about how he pictures the finish line of his career, he did not hedge. "I would be very happy to retire in the uniform of Hapoel Tel Aviv," he told the outlet. Under the new terms, Ginat will be 35 when the deal expires.
By the club's own count, relayed through ONE, the extension takes Ginat's total tenure in Tel Aviv to 12 years - an initial four-year spell followed by eight more years now locked in. He first signed with Hapoel in July 2016, turning down other offers to join the club he supported as a boy, and has already committed to multiple extensions since.
For all the loyalty on show, Ginat was clear that sentiment alone will not satisfy him. The one prize missing from his run at Hapoel is a domestic league title, and he framed that as the remaining item on his personal list. "This is the most important thing... I believe that when we win a championship it will be closing a circle, a very important milestone," he said.
The context for that ambition is a club that has been transformed on the European stage. Hapoel won the EuroCup in 2025 and are about to begin their second season competing in the EuroLeague, basketball's top continental competition - a rise Ginat described in the interview as remarkably quick. "The jump was incredibly fast and here we are today as a EuroLeague team entering its second year there," he said.
Ginat's own numbers reflect a player who has taken on a heavier European workload without being the headline scorer: he averaged 8.9 points, 4.8 rebounds and 1.4 assists during Hapoel's EuroCup-winning campaign, and 3.3 points and 1.9 rebounds once the step up to EuroLeague competition arrived.
Head coach Dimitris Itoudis, who has led Hapoel through its European climb, praised Ginat's durability through a run of injuries and said he hoped the forward would stay healthy and keep helping the club for years to come, according to ONE.
There was a personal note too. Ginat has recently become a father, and he described the summer break around the birth as, in his words, the most fun vacation he has ever had.
Ginat captains Israel's senior national basketball team and has been named the country's Player of the Year twice and Player of the Month five times over his career, alongside four selections to the Israeli league's All-First Team. With this deal, Hapoel Tel Aviv have again shown a preference for building continuity around homegrown, boyhood-supporter figures rather than churning through imports at forward - a policy the club will hope pays off first in the EuroLeague, and then, if Ginat gets his wish, on the domestic table.
