From Football Star to Paralympic Tennis Medalist: The Story of Roi Abergil
Former Israeli Premier League football player Roi Abergil, paralyzed in a match accident five years ago, won a bronze medal at the World Paralympic Tennis Championship in the USA.
Roi Abergil knew a thing or two about the spotlight when he was a football player. A decade ago, he was still dreaming of scoring goals, bursting forward, and fulfilling the potential everyone saw in him as a child. He made it to the sports pages as a player for Bnei Yehuda in the Premier League, and even when reality drifted away from his dream, he remained loyal to the ball and the grass. But Abergil at 35, who was injured, left paralyzed, and transitioned to Paralympic tennis, has been in a completely different place for several years now.
"Now I am less into being famous. I want to live my life quietly, to enjoy it," he shares in an interview with Yedioth Ahronoth and Ynet, after winning the bronze medal with the Israeli national team at the World Championship held in the USA over the weekend. Abergil competes in the quad category, alongside Paralympic medalists Noam Gershony and Guy Sasson. The accident that changed his life occurred during a football match about five years ago, when he was a striker for Beitar Beersheba in Liga Bet.
The Accident That Changed Everything
Trying to save a ball near the sideline, Abergil lost his balance due to uneven turf, was hurled into a fence, and broke his neck. He was left paralyzed from the chest down and has been using a wheelchair ever since. "I managed only to push my hands forward and turn my head aside, but I was too close to the fence and it wasn't enough. My neck absorbed the full force of the fall. I broke several vertebrae and suffered severe spinal cord injury," Abergil recalls of the moment that upended his world.
Abergil lives in the town of Mitar near Beersheba, and football had been in his life as long as he could remember. He eventually went to college in Colorado, playing soccer and studying economics and business administration. Despite a strong college career, a professional breakthrough in the MLS eluded him due to his age and foreign player quotas. Returning to Israel, he played briefly for Bnei Yehuda before a knee injury and a lack of energy derailed his traditional football career, leading him to pursue a master's degree at Ben-Gurion University.
Transition to Paralympic Tennis
Then, two years later, at the age of 30, the tragic accident occurred during a Liga Bet match. Lying in the hospital, completely paralyzed, Abergil felt like an object. "I was 1.85 meters tall, with the best physical abilities, and suddenly everything was taken away from me. Only the mind remained," he says. What saved him were friends and family, and a pivotal visit from tennis player Eilai Hayat, which eventually led him to the Beit Spivak sports center.
Abergil had played tennis recreationally alongside football, and this renewed encounter with the sport, this time in its Paralympic version, became his gateway back to professional sports. Competing in the grueling quad category, where players face varying levels of severe disability, Abergil is finding his path. Supported by the Paralympic Committee and the Israel Association for Disabled Sports, he focuses on self-fulfillment rather than looking too far ahead at the 2028 Los Angeles Games.
"I am part of the Israeli national team. My goal is to fulfill myself, look in the mirror, and say: 'You are good, you did it.' To reach as far as I can. I don't hang it on an event like the Paralympic Games, but want to get the most out of myself in every tournament," Abergil concludes.
