Израильдік футболшы Давид Аоуате өмірі мен мансабы

Israeli retired professional footballer

David "Dudu" Aouate (or Awat, , pronounced Dūdū Ahwaht; born 17 October 1977) is an Israeli retired professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. After playing for several clubs in his country, most notably Maccabi Haifa, he moved to Spain in 2003, going on to represent Racing de Santander, Deportivo La Coruña and Mallorca for a total of 303 La Liga matches. Aouate won 78 caps for Israel, during 14 years.

David Aouate was born in Nazareth Illit, Israel (now Nof HaGalil, Israel), to a family of Sephardic Jewish descent. He began his career at Maccabi Haifa F. C. where he had also played youth football, as an understudy to Nir Davidovich. Wanting first team action, he was loaned to Hapoel Nazareth Illit F. C. but never got a real chance until he transferred to Hapoel Haifa FC, having been assured that he would be the club's first choice, but he again found himself struggling to establish himself as such. Early in the 1998–99 season, however, the team's regular, Avi Peretz, was injured, and Aouate took his place. Hapoel eventually won the championship that year and he was praised for his performances; by the time Peretz recovered, Aouate was irreplaceable. finishing runners up in the league to Maccabi Tel Aviv; his solid performances earned him a transfer to European football, with Spanish club Racing de Santander signing him on 17 July 2003.

Aouate's move to Spain was made easier by the fact that he obtained a French passport, thus not counting as a foreigner. After forcing his way into the starting line up in 2004–05 due to Ricardo's loan return to Manchester United – going on to play 74 games out of 76 in his final two years – he signed a four year contract with fellow La Liga side Deportivo de La Coruña in August 2006, in a swap deal involving three players plus €1.5 million. He quickly paid back the confidence of his new club with an excellent season, appearing in all 38 matches; Don Balón, a Spanish football magazine, placed him eighth on their list of La Liga's Footballer of the Year in 2007. In 2007–08's January winter transfer window, after losing first choice status to Gustavo Munúa, both goalkeepers were involved in a post training punching session that resulted in both being suspended for the match against Villarreal CF, as well as subsequent league games. In February, due to B team keeper Fabri's inexperience, both players were reinstated in the squad, with the Israeli regaining starting duties. In late December, as he had been training separately with Munúa, not being part of Depor manager Miguel Ángel Lotina's plans, Aouate signed with RCD Mallorca for approximately €1 million until June 2011, as the Balearic Islands club was struggling in the league and dealing with an injury to first choice Miguel Ángel Moyá. He made his debut on 8 January 2009, in a 3–1 win over UD Almería for the campaign's Copa del Rey; four days later, with Moyà still injured, he appeared in a 0–3 league loss at Real Madrid. In June 2009, Moyà left for Valencia CF and Aouate became the automatic first choice. In February 2013, he tied Mallorca's record for most appearances for a goalkeeper, and announced his retirement on 8 August 2014 at the age of 36. and was named general manager on 11 August.

In an interview with Spain's Diario AS, Aouate was asked about the significance of Yom Kippur and some general questions about the prohibitions of the holiday. He added that he understood that playing football in this holiday was not allowed, but stated that if forced to play against Real Sociedad, in a September 2006 match, he would; his comments swirled a huge controversy in Israel with even a member of the Shas party calling for the player to be removed from the national team. In September 2010, Aouate decided not to play against CA Osasuna because the game was supposed to start 18 minutes before the end of the Jewish fast day, and Mallorca accepted his rationale.

In December 2009, during a match between Osasuna and Mallorca, Aouate was subjected to antisemitic chants coming from the Navarrese supporters – additionally, they waved Palestinian flags and called him "a murderer". The Royal Spanish Football Federation set up an inquiry into the incident, this being already the second time the player faced such abuse (the previous occurrence also being against Osasuna in 2006, while he was with Deportivo).

Aouate's strong domestic form earned him his first Israel call ups, and his debut occurred on 10 October 1999 in a 0–3 away loss against Spain for the UEFA Euro 2000 qualifiers. Since then, he became an integral member of the national team set up.