Four years ago, you would’ve had a hard time convincing Josh Cohen that he would soon be facing Lionel Messi in the Champions League.
He was playing for Sacramento Republic in the second division of the USL Championship. Granted, he was a finalist for the league’s Goalkeeper of the Year award, ultimately landing on the USL All-League Second Team. MLS teams didn’t come calling for his services, and he prepared for a second season with a team located just a couple of hours northeast of his hometown in Mountain View.
But, Cohen’s career trajectory has changed dramatically after he moved to Maccabi Haifa of the Israeli Premier League. Now a two-time league champion, Cohen won the league’s Player of the Year award in 2020-21, besting field players and goalkeepers alike. That season also saw him play against Jose Mourinho’s Tottenham Hotspur in the Europa League playoffs, giving him a first test against a great European side — which, as we now know, would not be his last.
“Coming from playing D-II college soccer all the way up through USL and now here, I think it makes me appreciate it a little bit more,” Cohen told The Athletic after a long day traveling back to Haifa from Turin, Italy last week. “This is far and away the highest level I’ve played at, and the experience of it all is also the most grandiose that I’ve experienced. The moment you sit down with the team and watch the draw for these games, it certainly feels that way. Each new experience that’s related to the Champions League feels like something special that I’ve never experienced before within soccer.”
As Maccabi Haifa sits halfway through its Group H fixture list, Cohen spoke about his first experience playing against three of Europe’s great clubs.
