Eran Zahavi officially hung up his cleats on New Years Day and without a shadow of a doubt will retire as one of the all-time greatest Israeli soccer players. Zahavi, who closes this chapter of his career at the age of 38, posted on Instagram an emotional message, “Thank you, my football, my first and greatest love in my life. Today we part on the pitch, but certainly not forever. I will always be grateful for who I am thanks to you. I love you from the bottom of my heart and will miss you just like you’ll miss me. Thank you for everything.”

Zahavi’s playing career was filled with many highlights as he thrilled the fans all over the country as well as around the world. While there were moments of controversy, those were few and far between for Zahavi as he provided so many wonderful highlights that he will be considered by this generation as the best footballer that the country has ever produced.

Born in 1987, Zahavi began his footballing journey at Hapoel Tel Aviv where he spent a decade in the youth department from 1993-2003 before moving to Rishon Le’Zion where he spent two years before heading back to the reds for one more season just ahead of him turning professional in the 2006-07 season.

After first campaign, Zahavi went on loan to Ramat HaSharon in the second division and made 45 appearances for the Leumit club while scoring 9 goals and returning to Hapoel for the 2008-09 season. With Hapoel Tel Aviv, Zahavi began to develop into the star footballer that he would become as he helped play an important role in the reds winning an unforgettable double in 2009-10 while also scoring one of the greatest goals in league history when he slotted home the championship-winning marker at Teddy Stadium against Beitar Jerusalem.

The Rishon Le’Zion native then continued on with an impressive Champions League campaign with Hapoel, where he also scored a goal that will forever be etched in the fans memories, the bicycle kick strike against French powerhouse, Lyon. In total, Zahavi made 135 appearances for Hapoel, scoring 35 goals and adding 10 assists during his time with the Reds.

Following a stint in Italy’s Serie A at Palermo and after failing to truly make an impact there having played in only 26 games while scoring just two goals and recording three assists, he made another bold move when he returned to Israel and signed for the city rivals, Maccabi Tel Aviv.

Maccabi at the time were at the beginning stages of their renaissance under the club’s Canadian owner Mitch Goldhar and sports director and former star player himself, Jordi Cruyff. At the yellow-and-blue, Zahavi came into his own and helped author one of the club’s greatest runs with three championships, qualification for the Champions League and an unbelievable number of goals, as he broke record after record after record. His March 2014 Derby Hat-Trick will go down as one of the most incredible individual performances which included a dramatic winning goal in the 93rd minute, on the way to a historic championship season.

After Zahavi helped the club win the domestic Treble in 2014-15, Maccabi’s Champions League qualification run that began in the summer of 2015 will go down as one of the country’s greatest and dramatic journeys ever to be experienced. Needing to defeat Viktoria Plzen by two goals in the Czech Republic after having fallen in Israel 2-1 in the first leg of third round of qualifying, Zahavi scored a pair of second half goals to silence the crowd and send the yellow-and-blue into the playoff round with a 3-2 aggregate win.

Basel hosted the first leg of the two-legged tie and grabbed a late 2-1 lead. However, that was before Zahavi had the final word when in the 96th minute of play, he rose above everyone to head the ball past the helpless keeper, score in one of the greatest games of his career and in a match that ultimately secured a ticket to the Champions League.

Zahavi then moved to China and made 117 appearances for Guangzhou R&F where he added 103 goals and 31 assists which was followed by a spell in Holland where he put in 79 appearances for PSV Eindhoven with 37 goals and 16 assists before returning to Israel for a second and final stint at Maccabi Tel Aviv. In his two terms with Maccabi, Zahavi totaled 298 appearances and scored a whopping 202 goals along with 41 assists.

All in all in Israeli league play he sits fifth overall with 177 markers and 29 goals behind Alon Mizrahi who is at the top of the all-time league scorers list.

With the Israel National Team, Zahavi is the all-time top scorer, surpassing Motele Speigler with 35 goals in 74 appearances with the record marker coming against Moldova at Turner Stadium, with Spiegler in the stands. Zahavi celebrated by raising one finger to the sky, just like Spiegler did at the 1970 World Cup. Zahavi is also remembered for throwing down the captain’s armband and other petty national team disputes along with other high-profile on-field incidents which were all part of the story, but they never overshadowed the defining images of Zahavi’s legacy: decisive goals, record-breaking seasons and an unrelenting drive to win.

Zahavi will go down as one of the most decorated Israeli footballers having won six league titles with five coming with Maccabi Tel Aviv and one with Hapoel. He won the State Cup twice in red and once in yellow-and-blue and added a trio of Toto Cup all with Maccabi Tel Aviv, as well as one Champions Cup (Super Cup) with the club. He also won the Dutch Cup with PSV and qualified twice for the Champions League.

Individually, he won Israeli Player of the Season three times, finished top scorer of the league four times, led the league in assists once, was twice the top scorer in the Chinese Super League, once Player of the Season in China, holds the record for goals in a single Israeli league season (35), the record for goals in a single Chinese league season (29), is Guangzhou’s all-time top scorer, the Israeli player with the most goals in European competitions (47) and the all-time top scorer in the Tel Aviv derby (14). In addition, he holds the record for most goals by an Israeli national team player in a qualifying campaign (11).

Zahavi holds the Israeli Premier League record for goals in a single season, breaking the mythical record of Nissim Elmaliach with 35 goals in 2015/16. He is the all-time top scorer in a single Chinese league season with 29 goals and Guangzhou’s all-time top scorer with 103.

He scored 47 goals in European competitions, 14 goals in the Tel Aviv derby, scored in 17 consecutive matches and scored 28 goals for Maccabi Tel Aviv in European competitions, all records. Overall, Zahavi scored 401 goals in 720 career appearances and no player has scored more in Israeli football.