She’s a keeper! Daniel saw Noa on Eurovision. He said he’d marry her. He was right
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Israel’s Posh and Becks on fame, football and carrying their country with them
The Eurovision Song Contest in 2023 was staged under different skies. Liverpool hosted on behalf of Ukraine, still fighting for its survival – and the UK’s entry, Jewish singer Mae Muller, got a disappointing 24 points for her rendition of I Wrote a Song. But many of us were also waiting for the other Jewish performer – Noa Kirel.
And when she performed Israel’s Unicorn, all bets were off. Even Graham Norton remarked on her beauty and formidable dance skills – and Israel duly finished third.
Daniel Peretz was watching too. Then goalkeeper for Maccabi Tel Aviv, he had a fan base of his own — “but not like Noa, she’s the most famous singer”, he clarifies and, coincidentally, they shared the same commercial agent.
They also had mutual friends and were both ambassadors for Puma, which brought them together at an event and “that was the first time we met,” says Noa. It was after that that Daniel said something that now feels like football folklore: “I’m gonna marry that girl.”
The declaration has sporting precedent. In 1996, David Beckham saw Victoria Adams in the Spice Girls’ Say You’ll Be There video and told a teammate, “That’s the girl I’m going to marry.”
Britain has Posh and Becks. Israel, it seems, has its own version. Except we’re talking in Southampton. Daniel is on loan from Bayern Munich for the remainder of the season and has already made his mark at Southampton — earning Man of the Match honours and the affection of teammates among them Brazil’s Léo Scienza who went public with his praise on social media. Hailed for his saves, Daniel is disarmingly modest.
“It’s quite nice – we’re just on the coast, right?” he says of their new location – an apartment overlooking the docks. “Yes, it’s really nice because we are used to living by the coast in Tel Aviv,” Noa adds, before smiling, “not the same beach.”
With a combined social media following of more than two million, the Peretz-Kirel wedding photographs last November briefly eclipsed everything else online.
Speculation overruled privacy instantly, so Noa did something direct and fast-tracked the romance. “I invited him to my house with my parents… This is my house. These are my people – straight away, no games.” Daniel arrived, she adds, “with flowers, like old school”.
Four weeks later, Daniel was sold to Bayern Munich. Noa’s reaction? “I said:“It’s impossible.’ To which Daniel replied: ‘You’re coming with me.’”
They didn’t know how it would work, but both felt something undeniable – and it shows. They interrupt, tease and finish each other’s sentences in a way that belies how recently they became a couple.
Israeli media was less romantic. “They were so mean to me,” says Noa. “Writing things like, ‘They’ve only been dating four weeks, why is she going with him?’ And I felt really confused.”
Both come from close-knit families. Raised in Ra’anana, Noa’s parents adjusted early to life with a child star when, at 14, she had her first hit, Medabrim (Talking), in 2015. Daniel, Tel Aviv-born, was devoted to football from the age of five, supported by a family who travelled the country for matches.
Four weeks into a relationship, they packed for Germany, with Daniel stepping into one of Europe’s most demanding clubs and Noa flying back to Israel for work. “I’m so happy we did it,” she says. They were still adjusting to Munich and to each other when October 7 happened.
“We had disconnected from all the press and stayed away from social media,”says Noa. “And then the first time, I went to my phone… I said ‘Daniel, something crazy is happening in Israel.’”Far from family, they watched the horror in fragments. “It felt like a movie,” says Daniel, who soon learned that his second cousin had been murdered. Noa, unable to stop crying, just wanted to go home.
As one of Israel’s most recognisable couples, they are used to appearance requests – but after October 7 they were different. Asked to visit teenage Nova festival survivors and families evacuated from the south, they had no idea what to say to people who had seen what no one should see.
“Nobody prepared me, and I started to cry,” says Noa. “On the one hand, I’m coming to make them happy, but they’re telling me their stories, and I couldn’t believe what I heard.” Daniel nods. “We cried together.” In a world that felt increasingly hostile, Munich surprised them.
“I think we were lucky,” Daniel says. “Munich was the best city for a Jew or an Israeli to live in after the war. The club offered me anything we needed and, in the city centre, a giant Israeli flag still hangs.”
Southampton publicly welcomed him on arrival and, although he is aware of incidents elsewhere, he believes “what is beautiful about sport, about football, is I don’t feel it matters where you come from if you are professional and work really hard”. Daniel may be insulated from politics in football but, for Noa, it has been different.
“After Eurovision, I thought a lot of doors would open for me but October 7 happened, and, you know, everything shut down for Israelis around the world. To perform globally is one of my biggest dreams… and now it feels a little bit impossible.”
Impossible, and yet she threw herself into work, filming a major Argentinian series, Noa, that required her to learn Spanish almost overnight. “I started to work on it in March and we filmed in April.” Evenings in Munich were spent with scripts spread out between them. “It was insane. Daniel would run lines with me.”
Daniel picked up some Spanish too, and although he arrived at Bayern Munich at the same time as Harry Kane, he has the stronger grasp of German – even if he is too polite to say so.
Soon after we met, Noa went back to Israel to start work as a mentor on The Voice. The couple speak constantly and live by a shared digital grid. “I’ll show you,” she laughs, pulling out her phone to reveal a 10-day stretch of Daniel’s home and away fixtures and her own movements between Southampton, Miami, Moldova and Israel.
And on that shared understanding Noa has more to say: “For Daniel to be here and to play abroad… it’s showing the different and beautiful side of Israel.”
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