Avi Cohen

Avi Cohen (Hebrew: אבי כהן‎; 14 November 1956 - 29 December 2010) was an Israeli footballer who played as a defender. Avi Cohen was best known for his spell playing for Liverpool in England. After retirement from active football and management, he was the chairman of the Israel Professional Footballers Association for over five years until he was killed in a motorcycle crash.

Avi Cohen began his playing career with Maccabi Tel Aviv before joining Liverpool for a fee of £200,000 ($450,000) in July 1979, and became the first Israeli to play in England. He struggled to establish himself as a regular at Anfield and was released in November 1981, rejoining Maccabi. On 20 September 1980 Cohen stirred up controversy when he decided to play in Liverpool's away fixture versus Southampton which fell on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. Liverpool drew with Southampton 2–2 in front of 24,085 spectators and Cohen was lambasted by the Israeli media for playing. He returned to the UK in 1987 when he had a brief spell under former Liverpool teammate Graeme Souness at Rangers, before ending his career with Maccabi Netanya.

He also played for the Israeli national team 51 times, scoring 3 goals. His son Tamir is currently an international professional footballer who plays for Bolton Wanderers in the English Premier League and the Israeli national team.

 On December 20, 2010, Cohen was seriously injured in a motorcycle crash. He was taken to Tel Aviv’s Ichilov Hospital, where he was immediately taken into surgery and was reported to be in a critical condition.^[11] Johan Elmander paid tribute to Avi Cohen through a goal celebration on the 26th December 2010 when he scored against West Bromwich Albion. Elmander held up a Bolton Wanderers shirt that read on the back – Get Well Soon Avi Cohen. This was due to Cohen's son Tamir currently playing for Bolton.

On December 28, 2010, Ichilov Hospital declared that Cohen was brain dead. His brain death was confirmed by his son Tamir later the same day. Paying tribute to Cohen, Kenny Dalglish said "Avi was a lovely man who will be remembered fondly by everyone at Liverpool who knew him. He quickly integrated himself into the football club when he joined us and spent a lot of time learning English which really made him popular. He was well liked by all the lads and although he didn't spend a long time at the club, he certainly left his mark and no-one will forget how he helped us win the league against Aston Villa. My thoughts and those of everyone connected to the club are with Avi's family." Ally McCoist said "we knew his situation was bad but never for a second did we think it would come to this" before going on to say it was "so sad to hear that he has passed away."

On December 29, 2010, after eight hours after the confirmation of suffering brain death, Cohen heart stopped and was declared legally dead at 06:00 AM IST.