It started as a joke about him being the spokesperson for Jonathan Levy.
Then the Israel Football Association contacted comedian Marcus Thabar.
– A whole country depends on you, brother, wrote one of the people who called.
It was during an earlier tweet by Jonathan Levy The scout also asked the midfielder how to communicate with him.
“Just talk to me, I’m Jonathan’s spokesperson,” said comedian Marcus Persevere jokingly.
Scout wanted Jonathan Levy’s number. He had insight into the Israeli national team, which he wanted the Norrköping player to represent, and thus wrote to Marcus Thabar on Twitter.
Thabar then clarified that he was not a spokesperson for Levi but that he had the midfielder’s number and could call him to see if it would be a good fit.
– Then I called Jonathan and told him what had happened, but he said he could not play for the Israel national team. People keep calling me. They took the joke very seriously, and it became a kind of campaign against me for including him in the Israeli national team as its spokesman, which I am not at all.
Don’t you think they’ll take the joke seriously?
– It’s pretty clear on my Twitter profile that I’m a comedian and podcaster, but now it’s like that. But I think as an agent for Jonathan Levy, I see it as my duty to at least not keep up with the refusal to train and things like that, but we have to handle this well, he jokes.
“a little strange”
The Twitter joke was clearly taken seriously by the Israel Football Association.
– A whole country depends on you, brother, wrote, among other things, one of the people who called Thabar.
How did you feel?
– It’s fun but I have to say it’s a little weird, but maybe I’ll leave it and become an agent now, we’ll see.
Markus Thabar is himself a supporter of IFK Norrköping and runs a podcast about the club. Hence he knows Jonathan Levy who laughed at the situation.
– He seemed to think it was very funny to end up in this situation. He resented it and we kept joking with each other in public before, so it was on board with it being a joke.
So it doesn’t look like there will be Jonathan Levy for the Israeli national team, but Marcus persevered and got a richer funny story.
– I can tell my grandchildren that since I was about to work in the IFA.
It has nothing to do with Israel
Jonathan Levy himself has nothing to do with Israel. He has a nickname taken which led the Israel Football Association to believe he had a connection to the state.
– I have no connection with Israel according to my father anyway, he searched for it. We have a given family name and then they think I’m from there. They’ve been with me for several years, even in Israeli clubs, he says.
However, he had a good laugh when Marcus called Persevere and told him about the situation. However, he hopes to receive a call from another national team next time.
– It was very interesting, but I’d rather you call me Jan (Anderson, captain of the Sweden national team) rather than the Israelis, because I’d rather represent Sweden than Israel.