Hadera asks star captain Menashe Zalka to exit contract, but he refuses

Hapoel Hadera has asked captain and club symbol Menashe Zalka to agree to release him from his contract after the team was relegated to Liga Alef, but he has refused. The move has left the club’s preparations for the new season in limbo, according to a first report by Sport 5.

Zalka, 35, still has a deal for next season with Hadera, where he became one of the most recognizable figures in the club’s history. His contract is unusually large for a Liga Alef player, with an annual salary of 700,000 shekels, while Hadera’s total budget is expected to be only 1 million shekels.

In addition to the salary, the contract includes an apartment, a car, fuel, and municipal tax payments. New owner Itai Ben Zvi recently approached Zalka and offered to preserve those benefits if he would agree to terminate the contract, but Zalka turned it down.

Because Zalka does not have an exit clause, the club remains stuck and it is still unclear how the situation will end. Zalka is the player most closely identified with Hadera, having grown up at the club and played there from the lower divisions all the way to promotion to the Premier League. Last season, during the relegation campaign, he played 25 National League matches and did not score or assist.