After Hapoel Hadera were relegated to Liga Alef, the club approached captain and symbol Menashe Zalka and asked him to agree to terminate his contract, but he refused. The standoff has left Hadera’s preparations for the new season frozen, according to the report.
Zalka, 35, still has a contract for next season with Hadera, the club where he became its most identified player. His deal is unusually expensive for a Liga Alef player, with an annual salary of 700,000 shekels, while the club’s total budget is expected to be only 1 million shekels.
The contract also includes an apartment, a car, fuel, and municipal tax payments. New owner Itai Ben Zeev recently approached Zalka and offered to keep those benefits while releasing him from the contract, but Zalka rejected the offer.
Because Zalka does not have an exit clause, the situation remains unresolved and it is still unclear how the matter will develop. Zalka grew up at Hadera and played for the club from the lower divisions all the way to promotion to the Premier League. Last season, during the relegation campaign, he played 25 league matches in the National League and did not score or assist.
