Maccabi lead the Google derby as Dor Peretz tops player searches

Maccabi Tel Aviv’s advantage over Hapoel Tel Aviv before Monday’s derby extends beyond the league table.

An analysis by FootyCabin of Google search interest in Israel found Maccabi ahead of their city rivals over the past week, three months and year — by a remarkably consistent margin of around 50 per cent.

The clubs meet at Bloomfield Stadium on Monday, 14 September, at 20.30 local time. Maccabi enter the fourth round with three wins from three; Hapoel have seven points and have yet to concede a league goal.

Maccabi’s digital lead persists across every timeframe

FootyCabin compared the Hebrew search terms for Maccabi Tel Aviv and Hapoel Tel Aviv simultaneously on Google Trends, restricted to searches made in Israel.

The figures are Google Trends’ average interest scores, not raw numbers of searches.

That matters. Google normalises its data according to the total volume of searches in a location and period and then scales relative interest. A value of 25 therefore does not mean 25 searches or 25 per cent of all searches.

What is notable is the stability of the difference. Maccabi’s relative advantage is 47 per cent over seven days, 54 per cent across three months and 55 per cent over the full year.

The regional comparison produced the same broad picture, with Maccabi ahead of Hapoel across the Israeli districts shown in the dataset.

That cannot be translated into a claim about supporter numbers. Google searches measure attention rather than allegiance. But as a measure of current digital interest, the gap is clear.

Peretz leads the player battle

FootyCabin also compared eight prominent players — four from each side — using their Hebrew names.

Over the week before the derby, all three leading players in the sample were from Maccabi.

Peretz’s position is not particularly surprising in context.

The Maccabi captain scored 19 league goals in 2025-26, finishing as the Israeli top flight’s leading scorer, before signing a new three-year contract in June. He then opened this league campaign with the first hat-trick of his senior career in Maccabi’s 5-2 win over Hapoel Jerusalem.

Tavernier presents a different case. The former Rangers captain only joined Maccabi on 7 September and made his debut that day in the 4-1 victory away to Hapoel Be’er Sheva. His elevated short-term search interest is therefore likely to reflect the transfer as well as anticipation of the derby.

Hapoel’s strongest performer over a slightly longer timeframe is Stav Turiel. Over the past month he recorded an average Trends score of 12, close to Peretz on 13 and Kanichowsky on 14. The weekly ranking should therefore be read as a snapshot of attention immediately before the match, rather than a permanent hierarchy of player popularity.

Search dominance does not settle the football argument

There is an obvious counterpoint to Maccabi’s digital advantage.

Hapoel have started the league by keeping three consecutive clean sheets: 0-0 against Hapoel Haifa, 3-0 against Beitar Jerusalem and 4-0 against Hapoel Ramat Gan. They enter the derby with a 7-0 goal difference and seven points.

Maccabi have been considerably more prolific. Wins of 5-2, 3-1 and 4-1 give them nine points and 12 goals from their first three league matches.

That leaves an unusually neat contrast before kick-off: the team attracting the greater Google interest also possess the league’s most productive attack, while their rivals arrive without having conceded.

The final hours before the derby may still shift the digital picture. A 24-hour player comparison conducted on match morning did not produce sufficient Google Trends volume to report reliable values, so the weekly sample remains the shortest usable player timeframe.

On the evidence available before kick-off, however, Maccabi hold the stronger online footprint. Whether that advantage means anything once the ball is in play is a different question.