Israeli soccer team starts 'Special Olympics' league
Hapoel Special Olympics coaches kids with various disabilities and is coached by professional soccer players
A new Israeli soccer team, Hapoel Special Olympics Ramat Gan, is made up of children with special needs and coached by professional soccer players.
One of those soccer players is Yoav Gabizon, who sat down with i24NEWS for a look into the team and how it works.
Gabizon has been playing soccer with Hapoel Ramat Gan for 11 years. He also trained kids starting at ages 12-13 for three years, and has experience training kids with autism.
"These kids need to feel normal, and this is the main thing that we do at the Special Olympics, we make them feel normal. They come to practice and you see the joy in their eyes, and their parents' eyes."
The club encounters several types of disabilities, from behavioral to physical.
"The kids get better, we are not a professional club... we do it because we want them to have fun and we want to give the parents a bit of joy, but they do get better. They shoot better and pass better," Gabizon said.
"They're around kids just like them, at their level, and they run and they play, and they pass the ball, and they score goals. And you can see excitement on their faces."
He mentioned the difficulties of coaching, but how the happiness of the kids and the parents makes it worth it for him.
"They fight to... be focused, to shoot the ball. I can see that this is tough for them, but they still do it. It's very inspirational."