Xavier Munford was welcomed back to Israel as the guard will feature for Hapoel Holon for the upcoming 2025/26 campaign. The former Hapoel Tel Aviv sharpshooter will once again team up with Head Coach Danny Franco for the new season after having spent last year with Venezia in Italy. Fans will recall Munford’s ability to lead and be a difference maker while with the Reds as he will now take his talents over to the purples and give their supporters thrills and chills at the Toto Arena.

The Sports Rabbi spoke to Munford about the upcoming season just as he arrived in Israel as well as Franco about the challenges of bringing in quality players and his initial thoughts on his new recruits.

“It feels good to be back here,” Munford began. “I feel a lot of love from the fans and I’m happy to be here. I’m going to just play my hardest and do what I’ve done before. I’m sure coach Danny will put guys in the right position to do just that. The main thing is to win here.”

Jordan McRae will be joining Munford at Holon after having played together with Danny Franco at Hapoel Tel Aviv, “For us it’s funny. It gives you a level of confidence to know that you got some familiar faces on the team and on the coaching staff, so that just gives you the ultimate confidence to go out, play hard and do what you got to do.”

With that, Munford, McRae and Franco will want to show what they can do after a number of teams including the two Tel Aviv teams and Hapoel Jerusalem loaded up on star power, “We definitely have that chip on our shoulder, extra motivation this year to come in and play well, so we have that type of motivation coming into the season.”

As for the fans, Munford knows them well after having played against Holon while with the Reds, “I’m familiar with these fans having played against them. but it’s good to be on their side now and I’m excited to get some wins for them.”

Danny Franco talked about the work that he needed to do to bring in a number of high quality players, “First of all, I feel great because it is very difficult this year to bring quality players to Israel, it’s both because of what is happening here and in general what is happening in the world and I think we all feel this in basketball. We were blessed to welcome in a pair of guys today in Xavier Munford and Damion Rosser. Both have tremendous abilities and their spirit makes them perfect for Hapoel Holon. I know what I am expecting from these guys and they want us to succeed as much as we can.”

On Munford and Jordan McRae, Franco added, “First of all, they are very exciting players and they will bring that excitement and enthusiasm. They are players who know how to play in front of a crowd that wants to win and that is something that is very important in Holon. Even in my previous terms it was very important to me that the players who arrive here have the spirit of the specific club and were competitive and ambitious.”

Franco also spoke about Damion Rosser, “He’s an amazing guy in fact I think he’s too amazing a guy (smiling). He should already be at an even higher level in his career today, so there’s a tremendous amount of potential there. From my experience after having coached at Holon beforehand, I think that at the end of the day the foreigners who came here were better in Holon than anywhere else in their career and I really hope that’s the case this time too.”