Barak Bakhar

Barak Bakhar (ברק בכר; born 21 September 1979) is an Israeli football manager and former player. Since June, he has been re-appointed as a coach Maccabi Haifa.

Early and personal life
Bakhar was born in moshav Tzrufa, Israel, to a Turkish-born father of both Sephardi Jewish and Mizrahi Jewish descent, and to an Israeli-born mother of Ashkenazi Jewish (Polish-Jewish) descent. His uncle was the Israeli Minister of Tourism Rehavam "Gandhi" Ze'evi.

Bakhar is married, has three children, and resides in Holon, Israel.

Playing career
After going through the ranks of the youth system of Neve Yosef, Bakhar transferred to Liga Artzit side, Hakoah Ramat Gan. After four seasons in the second tier of Israeli football, he made the jump to Hapoel Petah Tikva.

In 2004, Bakhar joined Liga Leumit side, Ironi Kiryat Shmona. He established himself in the starting line up on the right side of their defense and helped them gain promotion to Israeli Premier League, the highest tier of Israeli football. During the 2007–08 season, Bakhar played all but one league match for Kiryat Shmona, due to yellow card accumulation.

In October 2008, Bakhar was called up by national team manager, Dror Kashtan for the FIFA World Cup qualification matches against Luxembourg and Latvia. His call up was canceled though, being that he never completed his service in the IDF, a requirement of all Jewish players in order to represent Israel on the national side, and Eyal Meshumar was called up in his place.

Bakhar cited that the IDF did not suit him as to why he did not complete his service. He told Israeli Yedioth Ahronoth, "they wanted to send me to a combat unit in the armor corps." Additionally, Sport 5 pointed out that Bakhar was not match fit and was expected to undergo surgery soon. This in turn embarrassed the Israel Football Association that they had missed all these items before announcing the pool of players called in for the qualification matches

Managerial career


On 3 October 2012, Bakhar was appointed manager of Hapoel Ironi Kiryat Shmona. On 14 May 2015, he ended his contract. In the 2015–16 season, he was appointed of manager of Hapoel Be'er Sheva. He got Be'er Sheva to win the Israeli League for the first time in forty years after a 3–1 win against Bnei Sachnin. By winning the league, Be'er Sheva got in the UEFA Champions League for the first time and will start in the second qualifying round. He got Be'er Sheva into the third qualifying round of 2016–17 UEFA Champions League in a 3–2 win on aggregate against Sheriff Tiraspol. Then, he got Be'er Sheva secured a Europa League group stage position by stunning Greek side Olympiacos 1–0 on aggregate, the furthest they ever reached. In the playoff qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League, Badkar's Be'er Sheva lost 5–4 on aggregate to Celtic despite winning 2–0 at Turner Stadium. In the 2016–17 UEFA Europa League, Be'er Sheva made it in the round of 32 in the Europa League in second place behind Sparta Prague in Group K by getting famous results against Southampton and Inter Milan. Bakhar also won the Toto Cup for Be'er Sheva on 28 December 2016 beating his former club Hapoel Ironi Kiryat Shmona 4–1.

In 2022, Bakhar led Maccabi Haifa to the group stages of the Champions League for the first time in thirteen years after qualifying victories over Olympiakos, Apollon Limassol and former European Champions Red Star Belgrade.

In May 2023, Bakhar was appointed manager of Serbian SuperLiga side Red Star Belgrade, and was released from the team in December 2023 after derby loss to Partizan including failure to qualify to UEFA Champion League top 16.

In May 2024 Returned Maccabi Haifa after Signed a contract for two seasons.

Player
Hakoah Maccabi Ramat Gan
 * Israel Toto Cup Artzit: 1998–99

Ironi Kiryat Shmona
 * Israeli Liga Leumit: 2006–07
 * Israel Toto Cup Leumit: 2006–07
 * Israel Toto Cup Al: 2010–11

Manager
Ironi Kiryat Shmona
 * Israel State Cup: 2014

Hapoel Be'er Sheva
 * Israeli Premier League: 2015–16, 2016–17, 2017–18
 * Israel Super Cup: 2016, 2017

Maccabi Haifa
 * Israeli Premier League: 2020–21, 2021–22, 2022–23
 * Israel Super Cup: 2021
 * Israel Toto Cup: 2021–22