Tunisia national football team

Tunisia
Nickname(s)	Les Aigles de Carthage; (The Eagles of Carthage)
Association	Fédération Tunisienne de Football
Confederation	CAF (Africa)
Head coach	Humberto Coelho
Captain	Radhi Jaidi
Most caps	Sadok Sassi "Attouga" (110)
Top scorer	Francileudo Santos (22)
Home stadium	Stade 7 November
FIFA code	TUN
FIFA ranking	49
Highest FIFA ranking	19 (February 1998)
Lowest FIFA ranking	56 (March 2008)
Elo ranking	49
Highest Elo ranking	24 (June 1978)
Lowest Elo ranking	103 (July 1988)
Home colours	Away colours
First international
	Tunisia 1 - 2 Algeria ; (Tunisia; 25 June 1957)
Biggest win
	Tunisia 7 - 0 Togo ; (Tunis, Tunisia; 7 January 2000); Tunisia 7 - 0 Malawi ; (Tunis, Tunisia; 26 March 2005)
Biggest defeat
	Hungary 10 - 1 Tunisia ; (Hungary; 24 July 1960)
World Cup
Appearances	4 (First in 1978)
Best result	Round 1, 1978, 1998, 2002, 2006
African Nations Cup
Appearances	13 (First in 1962)
Best result	Winners, 2004
Confederations Cup
Appearances	1 (First in 2005)
Best result	1st round, 2005

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The Tunisia national football team (Arabic: منتخب تونس لكرة القدم‎), nicknamed Les Aigles de Carthage (The Eagles of Carthage), is the national team of Tunisia and is controlled by the Fédération Tunisienne de Football. They have qualified for four FIFA World Cups, the first one in 1978, but have yet to make it out of the first round. Nevertheless, they created history in that 1978 tournament in Argentina by becoming the first African side to win a World Cup match, beating Mexico 3-1. They also held defending champions West Germany to a goalless draw before bowing out. It took them 20 years to return to the finals but they have since qualified for the past three tournaments in succession, in 1998, 2002 and 2006. They were the only African team to appear at 2002 and 2006 - 2002 qualifiers Senegal, Cameroon, Nigeria and South Africa were replaced by Ivory Coast, Angola, Ghana and Togo, who were all first-time qualifiers.

Tunisia also won the African Nations Cup in 2004, for the first time in their history, when they hosted the tournament.

[edit] World Cup record

Year	Round	Position	GP	W	D	L	GS	GA
1930	Did not enter	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1934	Did not enter	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1938	Did not enter	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1950	Did not enter	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1954	Did not enter	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1958	Did not enter	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1962	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1966	Withdrew	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1970	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1974	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1978	Round 1	9	3	1	1	1	3	2
1982	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1986	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1990	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1994	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1998	Round 1	27	3	0	1	2	1	4
2002	Round 1	29	3	0	1	2	1	5
2006	Round 1	24	3	0	1	2	3	6
Total	4/18		12	1	4	7	8	17

FIFA World Cup History
Year	Round	Score	Result
1978	Round 1	Tunisia 3 – 1 Mexico	Win
	Round 1	Tunisia 0 – 1 Poland	Loss
	Round 1	Tunisia 0 – 0 Germany	Draw
1998	Round 1	Tunisia 0 – 2 England	Loss
	Round 1	Tunisia 0 – 1 Colombia	Loss
	Round 1	Tunisia 1 – 1 Romania	Draw
2002	Round 1	Tunisia 0 – 2 Russia	Loss
	Round 1	Tunisia 1 – 1 Belgium	Draw
	Round 1	Tunisia 0 – 2 Japan	Loss
2006	Round 1	Tunisia 2 – 2 Saudi Arabia	Draw
	Round 1	Tunisia 1 – 3 Spain	Loss
	Round 1	Tunisia 0 – 1 Ukraine	Loss

[edit] FIFA Confederations Cup record

Year	Round	GP	W	D	L	GS	GA
1992	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1995	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1997	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1999	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
2001	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
2003	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
2005	Round 1	3	1	0	2	3	5
2009	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
Total	1/8	3	1	0	2	3	5

**Gold background color indicates that the tournament was won.

[edit] African Nations Cup record

African Cup of Nations
Titles: 1 Appearances: 13
Year	Position	Year	Position	Year	Position
1957	Did not enter	1976	Did not qualify	1994	Round 1
1959	Did not enter	1978	Fourth place	1996	Runners up
1962	Third place	1980	Withdrew	1998	Quarter-finals
1963	Round 1	1982	Round 1	2000	Fourth place
1965	Runners up	1984	Did not qualify	2002	Round 1
1968	Did not qualify	1986	Did not qualify	2004	Champions
1970	Did not enter	1988	Did not qualify	2006	Quarter-finals
1972	Did not qualify	1990	Did not qualify	2008	Quarter-finals
1974	Did not enter	1992	Did not qualify	2010

For 2010, see 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification (CAF)

**Gold background color indicates that the tournament was won.

[edit] 2006 World Cup

At first many Tunisians criticized the coach for not putting in Selim Benachour who many considered the best player for the country who currently plays for Vitoria SC

Tunisia managed to draw their opening game against Saudi Arabia. They took the lead at half time thanks to Ziad Jaziri, but Tunisia didn't start well in the second half and Saudi Arabia equalized from Yasser Al-Qahtani. Substitute Sami Al-Jaber came on and scored with 4 minutes to go to put the Saudi's 2-1 up, but in added time Bolton defender Radhi Jaidi headed in an equalizer.

Tunisia lost their second match to Spain. Jaouhar Mnari put Tunisia in the lead with a goal in the eighth minute that kept them up until halftime. However, Spain came back in the second half scoring an equalizer that came from Raúl(72') and two additional goals from Fernando Torres(76', pen 90') that defeated Tunisia with a final score of 3-1.

Tunisia lost their last group match to Ukraine with a 1-0 defeat effectively ending their 2006 World Cup. Andriy Shevchenko(70') scored the only goal from a penalty kick.

[edit] Current Squad

The following players have been called up for the friendly against Netherlands on February 11, 2009.

No.	Pos.	Player	DoB (Age)	Caps	Goals	Club
1	GK	Hamdi Kasraoui	18 January 1983	16	0	RC Lens
22	GK	Jassem Khalloufi	2 September 1981	0	0	CS Sfaxien
15	DF	Radhi Jaidi	30 August 1975	102	7	Birmingham City
3	DF	Karim Haggui	20 January 1984	46	5	Hannover 96
5	DF	Khalil Chemmam	3 July 1987			Espérance de Tunis
16	DF	Souheïl Ben Radhia	26 August 1985	1	0	CS Sfaxien
12	DF	Yamen Ben Zekry	10 June 1979			SC Bastia
2	DF	Saïf Ghezal	30 June 1981			BSC Young Boys
4	DF	Khaled Souissi	20 May 1985			Club Africain
19	DF	Ammar Jemal	20 April 1987	1	0	FC Nantes
8	MF	Tijani Belaid	6 September 1987	13	3	Slavia Prague
13	MF	Wissem Ben Yahia	9 September 1984	7	0	Club Africain
7	MF	Jamel Saihi	21 January 1987	1	1	Montpellier
6	MF	Hocine Ragued	11 February 1983			RAEC Mons
10	MF	Fahid Ben Khalfallah	9 October 1982	3	1	FC Valenciennes
11	MF	Aïmen Demai	10 December 1982	1	0	Kaiserslautern
21	MF	Fabien Camus	28 February 1985	1	0	Charleroi
23	FW	Mohamed Amine Chermiti	26 December 1987			Hertha Berlin
9	FW	Mohamed Selliti	28 March 1981			Stade Tunisien
17	FW	Issam Jemâa	28 January 1984	31	12	RC Lens
14	FW	Sami Allagui	28 May 1986	1	0	Greuther Fürth
18	FW	Walid Tayeb	24 March 1981	1	0	Espérance de Tunis
7	FW	Lassad Nououi	18 April 1985			Deportivo la Coruña

[edit] Recent call-ups

No.	Pos.	Player	DoB (Age)	Caps	Goals	Club
	GK	Nadim Thabet		0	0	Jendouba Sport (Friendly v. Ghana, 19 November)
	GK	Aymen Mathlouthi	14 September 1984			Etoile du Sahel (Friendly v. France, 14 October)
	DF	Yassin Mikari	9 January 1983	13	0	FC Sochaux (Friendly v. Ghana, 19 November)
	DF	Anis Boussaidi	10 April 1981			Red Bull Salzburg (Friendly v. Ghana, 19 November)
	DF	Abdelmonem Derbali	10 February 1981	0	0	Club Africain (Friendly v. Ghana, 19 November)
	DF	Khaled Zairi		0	0	Stade Tunisien (Friendly v. Ghana, 19 November)
	DF	Bilel Ifa	9 March 1990			Club Africain (Friendly v. Ghana, 19 November)
16	GK	Arbi Mejri	3 February 1985			Espérance de Tunis (WCQ v. Burkina Faso, 6 September)
16	GK	Adel Nefzi	16 March 1974	0	0	Club Africain (WCQ v. Seychelles, 7 June)
	DF	Alaeddine Yahia	26 September 1981	14	0	RC Lens (Friendly v. France, 14 October)
	DF	Radhouane Felhi	25 March 1984			TSV 1860 München (WCQ v. Seychelles, 11 October)
13	DF	Saber Ben Frej	3 July 1979			Le Mans (Friendly v. France, 14 October)
4	DF	Karim Saidi	24 March 1983	15	2	Sivasspor (WCQ v. Burundi, 21 June)
14	DF	Fatah Gharbi	12 March 1983			CS Sfaxien (WCQ v. Burundi, 21 June)
	DF	Mehdi Meriah	5 June 1979			Etoile du Sahel (Friendly v. Ivory Coast, 26 March)
	DF	Wisam El-Abdi	2 April 1979			Zamalek (African Nations Cup, January 2008)
	DF	Wissem El Bekri	16 June 1984			Espérance de Tunis (African Nations Cup, January 2008)
	MF	Mejdi Traoui	13 December 1983			Red Bull Salzburg (Friendly v. Ghana, 19 November)
	MF	Mohamed Ali Nafkha	25 January 1986	5	0	Etoile du Sahel (Friendly v. Ghana, 19 November)
	MF	Oussama Darragi	24 July 1987	3	0	Espérance de Tunis (Friendly v. Ghana, 19 November)
	MF	Chaouki Ben Saada	1 July 1984	28	5	OGC Nice (Friendly v. Ghana, 19 November)
	MF	Anis Boujelbene	6 February 1978	20	2	Al-Ahly (Friendly v. France, 14 October)
	MF	Majdi Mosrati		2	0	Etoile du Sahel (Friendly v. France, 14 October)
10	MF	Youssef Mouihbi	1 April 1985	3	0	Club Africain (WCQ v. Burkina Faso, 6 September)
12	MF	Jaouhar Mnari	8 November 1976	58	3	1. FC Nuremberg (WCQ v. Burkina Faso, 6 September)
	MF	Chadi Hammami	14 June 1986			CS Sfaxien (Friendly v. Angola, 20 August)
14	MF	Chaker Zouaghi	10 January 1985	11	1	Lokomotiv Moscow (WCQ v. Seychelles, 7 June)
	MF	Mehdi Nafti	28 November 1978	41	1	Birmingham City (Friendly v. Ivory Coast, 26 March)
	MF	Kamel Zaiem	25 May 1983	8	2	Al-Khor (Friendly v. Ivory Coast, 26 March)
	FW	Francileudo Dos Santos	20 March 1979	40	22	FC Sochaux (Friendly v. Ghana, 19 November)
	FW	Ali Zitouni	11 January 1981			Antalyaspor (Friendly v. Ghana, 19 November)
	FW	Hichem Essifi	27 February 1987	4	2	US Monastir (Friendly v. France, 14 October)
	FW	Mehdi Ben Dhifallah	6 May 1983			Etoile du Sahel (Friendly v. Angola, 20 August)
	FW	Yassine Chikhaoui	22 September 1986			FC Zürich (Friendly v. Ivory Coast, 26 March)