WORLD CUP 2006
Tunisia
Introduction
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In geographic terms, Tunisia is a minnow of Africa; in footballing terms, the national team will be the continent’s giants at the World Cup.
Of the five African teams in Germany, only Tunisia have any experience of the finals. The fact that this is their third successive appearance underlines their status as one of Africa’s best-organised and most professional sides, even if their playing resources are a little thin.
Tunisia have already made World Cup history: their win against Mexico in 1978 in Argentina was the first by an African country at a finals. This summer, they are appearing for a fourth time and have a vastly experienced side. Players such as Radhi Jaidi, Riadh Bouazizi, Kaies Ghodhbane, Jose Clayton, Hatem Trabelsi and 40-year-old keeper Ali Boumnijel are all veterans of the competition.
Bouazizi and Ghodhbane have also played in six successive African Nations Cup tournaments and were thus at the start of the evolutionary process for the current national squad.
In 1996, Tunisia picked a young side for the Nations Cup, viewing it primarily as preparation for the Olympic Games later that year. So they were pleasantly surprised to gain a place in the Final, which they lost 2-0 to hosts South Africa. And while the Under-23
team bombed in Atlanta, the seeds of confidence had been planted.
Tunisia qualified for the last two World Cups, where they exited at the group stage both times. But their potential to
go a stage further this time has been boosted by the hiring of former France coach Roger Lemerre.
The team have also benefited from the policy of looking beyond Tunisia-born players in order to boost the quality and depth of the squad. The current key player is Brazil-born striker Francileudo dos Santos, whose finishing ensured qualification for Germany. Santos was offered Tunisian nationality on the eve of the 2004 Nations Cup, and his goals at the finals, played on home soil, were a major part of Tunisia’s run to their first African crown.
Lemerre’s latest acquisition is Toulouse-born defender David Jemmali, who resisted overtures from Tunisia for a decade before finally agreeing in March to play for the country of his father’s birth.
Tunisia were a polished side in the preliminaries, seeing off strong north African rivals Morocco. Now the ambition is to get through to the knockout stages at a World Cup for the first time.
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