Article by Andrei Crăiţoiu – Published Thursday, December 25, 2025, 2:47 p.m. / Updated Thursday, December 25, 2025, 2:47 p.m.
Gabriel Tamaș (42 years old) spoke for the first time about the real reasons why he was arrested in Israel in 2019, when he was playing for Hapoel Haifa.
- CONTEXT
- In March 2019, Gabriel Tamaș was driving at 205 km/h on the highway, in a section where the speed limit was only 90.
- He was stopped by the police after a few kilometers. Agents smelled alcohol when they got to the driver's side window.
- The police took Tamaș down and, after the tests carried out on the spot, he had a concentration of 0.77 mg/l of pure alcohol in his exhaled air, three times higher than the legal limit in Israel.
After winning Asia Express with Dan Alexa, former international Gabriel Tamaș came to “Friends of Ovidiu”.
And among the topics discussed during the show, the former defender revealed that “abroad I felt the best at Hapoel Haifa”.
Despite the fact that he was arrested there. “And I spent seven days in prison,” as he says.
“I got pulled over for DUI, but they didn't arrest me for it. So I didn't get arrested for it.”reveals Tamaș. He details for the first time the reasons for his arrest.
Gabriel Tamaș reveals the real reasons why he spent time in prison in Israel: “The police said that I entered the country fraudulently”
“When I entered Israel, I entered on a temporary passport. I told the president not to put my visa on this one, because I have to get the 10-year one. I went to the Romanian Consulate in Israel, in Tel Aviv, I handed in my temporary passport, he gave me the new one and put my work visa on that one,” begin Tamaș's revelations.
And that's where the problems started. “At the Court, they could no longer find me in the system. I had another passport there. The police said that I entered the country fraudulently. And then the judge has already changed his mind and opinion. Pac, until clarification”, explained the former international.
Gabriel Tamas
“I ate 4 slices of bread in seven days and drank coffee”
About the conditions in the prison, Tamaș gave details on the show. “I stayed for seven days… They had custody at the court downstairs and they'd take you straight to jail. One bed, one shower. The shower was a hole in the wall and the water barely trickled down the wall.”he says.
“I couldn't eat. I ate 4 slices of bread in seven days and drank coffee. The guards would bring me coffee and I would drink coffee. I would go out for a walk, they would take me out, but not with the other inmates. He would take me out by himself if I wanted to go for a walk in the yard of the institution”, Gabriel Tamaș also said.
I played at Dinamo, Steaua and Rapid. I can't say I loved one more than the other. I felt very good at all the teams I went to. Especially at Rapid, I was 15 years old and when I saw that atmosphere in Giulesti, wow what was there!
Gabriel Tamaș, former international
Won Asia Express and goes to Surviror
Antena 1 will, starting in 2026, produce and broadcast the Survivor format, a reality show that highlights the sports and athletic qualities of the participants.
- Among the most important names in sports who participated in Survivor are Mihai Onicaș, Ștefan Ciuculescu, Sebastian Chitoșcă (former footballers at FCSB), Asiana Peng, Ana Porgras, Ștefania Stănilă, Marian Drăgulescu (former gymnasts), Cezar Juratoni (former boxer), Cătălin Moroșanu, Cătălin Zmărăndescu, Mihai Zmărăndescu (former wrestlers), Elena Chiriac (former taekwondo champion) or Robert Niță (former footballer at Rapid).
“The toughest format of survival is coming to Antena 1! The reality show in which the contestants learn to secure their shelter, procure their food, on their own, on an isolated island and in which each of them fights to go to the end, with only one thought: to lift the trophy above their head and get the big prize” was Antena's announcement.
