Avram Grant's Biography

In September 2007, Avram Grant came to widespread public attention when, in his early fifties, he was appointed the new manager of Chelsea football club after the surprise departure of Jose Mourinho.

Avram Grant had recently been appointed Chelsea's director of football, and at the time, The Guardian reported:

"A source close to the coach denied press reports last week that Grant was swayed by a promise from Roman Abramovich that he would be the replacement for Jose Mourinho as manager 'if things go wrong this season'."

In May 2008 Chelsea sacked Avram Grant after just eight months as their manager, in spite of him taking Chelsea to the runners-up spot in the Premier League and Champions League finalists, just losing out to Manchester United on penalties.

Before joining Chelsea, Avram Grant had been Portsmouth's technical director.

Martin Samuel commented on Harry Redknapp's reluctance to get in the way of Avram Grant's move from Portsmouth to Chelsea:

"Grant is the director of football at Portsmouth, where his input is rated so highly by Harry Redknapp that the manager did everything but offer to drive him up the M3 when rumours of a move to Chelsea surfaced."

Avram Grant is reported to have first got to know Chelsea boss Roman Abramovich through the football agent Pini Zahavi, who, according to the Daily Mail: "took Abramovich to the Israel team hotel in Dublin to meet Grant after a 2-2 draw in a World Cup qualifier against the Republic of Ireland in 2004."

Grant, having won Israel's league title with Maccabi Tel Aviv and Maccabi Haifa became Israel's manager, and was in charge when Israel narrowly failed to qualify for the World Cup 2006 finals.

Israel were unbeaten in their qualifying group but finished behind France and Switzerland.

Avram Grant and Israel parted company in the winter of 2005/6.

Avram Grant's wife Tzofit is an actress and TV host.

On April 30, 2008, after Avram Grant had coached Chelsea to a place in the Champions League final when they beat Liverpool in extra time in the second leg of the semi-finals at Stamford Bridge, he knelt to the turf and offered a prayer in remembrance of his family members killed in the Holocaust.

The BBC quoted Avram Grant's explanation:

"It was not an easy day for me. It is Holocaust Day in my country and I was thinking of my father, who buried my grandfather with his own hands, and I am very proud of what we did.

"It was very emotional. I owe a lot to my parents. My father survived the Holocaust and had to bury many of his family but he is the strongest and most optimistic man I have ever met."

In October 2009, Avram Grant returned to Portsmouth, which earlier in the week had been taken over by Ali Al Faraj, as their new director of football.

However, on 20 May 2010, Avram Grant resigned as manager of Portsmouth. The club was in financial crisis and had been relegated although it had reached the final of the F. A. Cup, which it lost to Chelsea.

On 3 June 2010, West Ham appointed Avram Grant as their new manager.

However, West Ham were relegated that season, and, on 15 May 2011, Avram Grant and West Ham parted company.

In 2012, he had a short stint in charge of Partizan Belgrade, winning the Serbian championship.

In 2014, he was appointed coach of the Ghana national side.

Subsequently, he became manager of the Zambia national side.