‘When the alarms go off, you go into the safe room for around five or 10 minutes, then come back out and carry on with your day. It was a strange experience’ Rory Delap on coaching in Israel

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The former Stoke midfielder was Robbie Keane’s assistant at Maccabi Tel Aviv in 2023

Stoke City's Rory Delap prepares to launch his long throw in a game against Hull City.
Rory Delap back in his playing days (Image credit: Getty Images)

Utter the name Rory Delap to most English football fans and the conversation will immediately pivot to long throws and cold, rainy nights in Stoke.

But there was far more to the former Potters star than the various cliches associated with Tony Pulis’ old side as a player and the 49-year-old has continued to add to his resume as a coach over the past few seasons.

Delap on coaching alongside Keane in Israel and Hungary

Rory Delap

Delap has won two league titles as an assistant manager (Image credit: William Hill)

“Great experiences,” Delap tells FourFourTwo. “It was a tough job in Israel because of the situation there, but we’d both been out of work for quite a while.

“They reached out and it was a great opportunity to coach in European competition. Winning the league and cup was something I’ll never forget, and again in Hungary when we went there in January.

Robbie Keane celebrates after scoring a stoppage-time equaliser for the Republic of Ireland against Germany at the 2002 World Cup

Delap has assisted his former Ireland team-mate Robbie Keane in the dugout (Image credit: Alamy)

“It was hard to get across the way we wanted to play, to understand the players and staff, but everyone was brilliant. Robbie’s a great man manager. I’m sure he’ll go on to bigger and better.”

Reports emerged in October 2023 that Delap and Keane were forced to hide in a panic room in Tel Aviv during the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023.

“The reports were blown out of proportion,” Delaps says. “When we first went there, looking at apartments, they said, “This is a safe room”. Every new building, every shop, cafe or restaurant has one.

“When the alarms go off, you go into the safe room for around five or 10 minutes, then come back out and carry on with your day. It was a strange experience, but the players and staff were great with us during that time.”

The pair linked up again at Ferencvaros in January and after winning the Hungarian title last season, Delap left the club in the summer.

Stoke City Rory Delap

Delap in a familiar Stoke City pose (Image credit: Getty Images)

"It was tough as they had Champions League qualifiers, but I’d been away from home for nearly two years and family comes first sometimes,” Delap admits.

This family duty means that Rory is now able to watch sons Liam and Finn make their way in the game. Older brother Liam moved to Chelsea in the summer in a £30million move, while Finn is a defender playing at Burton Albion.

Delap has teamed up with bookmaker William Hill for their prediction game Final One Standing this season

Joe Mewis
Joe Mewis

For more than a decade, Joe Mewis has worked in football journalism as a reporter and editor. Mewis has had stints at Mirror Football and LeedsLive among others and worked at FourFourTwo throughout Euro 2024, reporting on the tournament. In addition to his journalist work, Mewis is also the author of four football history books that include times on Leeds United and the England national team. Now working as a digital marketing coordinator at Harrogate Town, too, Mewis counts some of his best career moments as being in the iconic Spygate press conference under Marcelo Bielsa and seeing his beloved Leeds lift the Championship trophy during lockdown.

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