Despite a multi-million salary: Hapoel Tel Aviv coach demands a raise from Ofer Yanai

Dimitris Itoudis, the decorated Greek coach of the Hapoel Tel Aviv basketball team, is interested in reopening his contract with the club and exploring the possibility of upgrading his terms. The demand comes despite the fact that Itoudis has a signed and valid contract for the next two seasons, until the summer of 2028.

Itoudis is already considered one of the highest-paid coaches in European basketball. His annual salary is estimated at approximately 9 million shekels, or between 2.7 and 3 million dollars per season. Now, after a series of significant achievements in the European arena, he is requesting that the contract reflect his status and his contribution to the club's progress.

According to a YNET publication, the coach joined Hapoel Tel Aviv in November 2024, during a period when the team was playing in the EuroCup. The contract he signed at the time included a salary of about 1.2 million euros per season, a sum considered exceptionally high in Israeli basketball at that time.

Since then, the club's status has changed dramatically. Itoudis led Hapoel Tel Aviv to a EuroCup victory in the 2024/25 season, an achievement that granted the team a ticket to the EuroLeague. In the following season, the team continued to establish itself in the European arena and reached the EuroLeague quarterfinals.

These are exactly the achievements Itoudis relies on in his demand to reopen the contract. From his perspective, he arrived at the club and led it within a short time to a European title and to the top stage of European basketball, competing against the biggest teams on the continent.

However, from the perspective of the Hapoel Tel Aviv management, the picture is more complex. Alongside the impressive success in Europe, the team struggled to win titles in the local arena. Since Itoudis's appointment, out of four possible titles — two championships and two cups — he has reached only one final with the team, and even in that one, he lost to Maccabi Tel Aviv.

This gap now creates a significant dilemma for the club. On one hand, this is a coach who brought Hapoel Tel Aviv to historic achievements. On the other hand, he already holds a very high contract, and the relative failure in the fight for titles in Israel may cause the management not to rush to meet his demand.

At this stage, Hapoel Tel Aviv is not rushing to change the terms of the agreement, and the existing contract remains in effect. This means that the parties are facing delicate negotiations, in which each of them holds significant arguments.

Now it remains to be seen how the dispute will be resolved, and whether Hapoel Tel Aviv will agree to upgrade the coach's terms, or will prefer to stick to the contract that the parties signed until the summer of 2028.