No One Can Stop Them: The Story of Israel’s Amputee National Team
The incredible story of Tzach Shachrur — a lawyer, yoga instructor, sought-after motivational speaker, and now a soccer player on Israel’s national amputee team — took a life-altering turn at the age of 8. This weekend, the team will compete in the Five Nations Tournament in Blankenberge, Belgium.
Tzach, now 35, had just returned from a karate class when, crossing a street in Ramat Gan, he was hit at a crosswalk by a bus. The wheel ran over his foot, completely crushing it. He managed to move just in time to save his life, but his foot was left severely damaged.
At the hospital, doctors decided to do everything possible to save the foot, fearing that amputating a limb at such a young age could disrupt his entire growth process. The rehabilitation was complex. Over the course of seven surgeries, muscle was taken from his back and skin from his thigh to reconstruct the foot. The surgery was deemed successful — Tzach was even able to walk without limping — but it soon became clear there was a serious functional problem: the transplanted skin on the foot was so thin and sensitive that even short walks would injure him and cause severe pain. Running or any athletic activity was out of the question, accompanied by chronic suffering.
Sports had always fascinated Tzach, but he chose to study law, completing both undergraduate and graduate degrees, and began building his professional life. At age 30, he made a critical decision — to amputate his foot.
“I realized I had to change course. There were days I couldn’t get out of bed from the pain, and I lost more than one job because of it.”
He consulted with doctors who advised against the amputation. But when he saw Oscar Pistorius, a double amputee, compete using prosthetics at the 2012 London Olympics, he thought:
“My starting point — having just one amputated leg — is better than this.”
“It was the best decision I’ve ever made,” he told me this week about the amputation.
“I solved the walking limitation and moved to a prosthetic. The rehab wasn’t easy, but I broke free from the cage I had lived in for decades.”
Tzach knew he would never be Pistorius — who is now in prison for murdering his partner — but he began developing athletic skills in running, beach volleyball, skateboarding, snowboarding, and boxing. His coach on the beach was Ben Paz, the son of Sharon Paz, who was the first youth coach of Maccabi Haifa star defender Sun Menachem — and later married Tzach’s mother. Today, Sharon is Tzach’s coach on Israel’s amputee national team.
In fact, Tzach is the originator of the idea to create the amputee soccer team:
“We started from zero. I didn’t connect to wheelchair tennis or basketball, so I searched online about amputee football and came across a video from the 2017 European Championship in Turkey. I couldn’t believe it — 40,000 fans in the stands, and the level of soccer was insane. That was a pivotal moment for me. I knew I wanted that here.”
He checked with all the major disabled sports clubs in Israel, but none had heard of the sport. About a year after his surgery, during an event where he met several leg amputees, Tzach showed them the video — and it was met with huge excitement. The group organized a trial practice, a friend filmed it, Tzach wrote a long Facebook post, and by the next session, Israel’s Sports Channel showed up and produced a touching segment.
The team quickly gained exposure, and the first invitation came from the Greek national team. Tzach recalls the match took place in the city of Drama, and they were the first Jews to set foot there since World War II.
“We lost, but it was incredibly emotional to sing Hatikvah there with the flag,” he shared.
The movement gained momentum. One of the players, who worked at Altshuler Shaham investment firm, got his company interested — and they’ve supported the team since its early days.
“We were looking for a coach,” Tzach explains, “and Ben from the beach mentioned that his dad, Sharon, had coached kids, teens, adults, women’s teams, and beach soccer. We met — and two minutes into the conversation, Sharon was all in. He shaped the team in his own image.”
Israel started in Division D and climbed one tier. If they finish first in this weekend’s tournament, they’ll advance to Division B. But tough battles await against teams on their level — some of whom they’ve already beaten — including host nation Belgium, Ukraine, Greece, and Georgia.
The dominant force in amputee soccer is Turkey, where nearly 1,000 active players compete from youth to adults, across three leagues. The sport is highly valued by the Turkish establishment, with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan considered a patron of the national team.
Poland is also a powerhouse. Robert Lewandowski personally donated a facility with locker rooms and a team bus for their national amputee team.
