Itongadol.- Maccabi Tel Aviv landed at Ben-Gurion Airport on Monday afternoon to a hero\’s welcome a day after they defeated Spain\’s Real Madrid 98-86 to claim the sixth European basketball championship title in club history.
Thousands of fans awaited coach David Blatt and his players at the airport, awarding them with a warm reception.
The players, who celebrated their victory all night in Milan before leaving for home, were set to make an appearance at Tel Aviv\’s Rabin Square at 7:30 p.m. on Monday evening to party with tens-of-thousands of yellow-and-blue faithful.
The players were also scheduled to be personally congratulated by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai.
Club President Shimon Mizrahi said upon landing at Ben Gurion on Monday, "What we have done is amazing. It is a great accomplishment. We did it with the help of 10,000 fans who came to Milan to urge us on. I\’m very happy."
Blatt, greeted by cheers at the airport, said, "This is our goal – to make people happy and entertain them. For the fans it is the experience of a lifetime."
"We didn\’t sleep much," Blatt added, saying that the celebration at Rabin Square "will be a lot of fun, that\’s for sure."