Joel Nathan is confident Team Maccabi GB can build on their success at the European Maccabi Games by pushing for honours at the 2017 Maccabiah Games in Israel.
Nathan’s appointment as General Team Manager comes as applications open for all athletes who want to represent Great Britain across a number of sporting disciplines.
He has a strong affiliation to Jewish sport. A stalwart of Brady Maccabi since the club’s doors opened in 1979, Nathahn has played football at every age group. During his time with the club he won numerous honours and titles, culminating in leading Brady to their first ever Peter Morrison Cup in May 2013.
Nathan joined the Club Council in 2005 and became Club Chairman in 2008, overseeing the merger between Brady Maccabi and London Maccabi. On an international level, he represented Maccabi GB at the European Games in Amsterdam in 1995 and, in 2009, was asked to coach the U16 Football team at the 18th Maccabiah Games. This was followed by a gold-winning stint as the U16 Football Team Manager for the 2011 European Games in Vienna, before adding a Bronze medal as Manager of the U18 Football Squad in Israel at the 19th Maccabiah Games (2013).
Nathan said: “I am incredibly proud to be Great Britain’s General Team Manager for a second successive International Jewish sports tournament.
"Richard and I laid strong foundations before, during and after Berlin and this was widely reflected by the record-breaking amount of medals and the thousands of memories our athletes, managers and coaches made on and off the field of play.
"There is nothing quite like a Maccabiah Games and we have already begun work recruiting for a top-class set-up.”
Richard Horne will assist Nathan under whom TMGB won a record medal haul in Berlin in August.
Horne said: “We’re aiming to take the largest delegation we’ve ever taken to a Maccabiah Games – 500 participants – and we are spreading the word far and wide.
"Many people may have heard of the ‘Jewish Olympics’, but many may not have, so we encourage the whole community across the UK to help our search for the right people to compete."
Maccabi GB will be looking to take Open, Junior, Masters and, for the first time, Paralympic athletes across a range of sports. Recruitment for Sports Chairs, Managers, Coaches, Medics, Doctors, Junior Managers continues.