Tunisia national football team

Infobox National football team
Name = Tunisia
Badge = Tunisian_FA_2006.gif
Nickname = Les Aigles de Carthage
("The Eagles of Carthage")
Association = Fédération Tunisienne de Football
Confederation = CAF (Africa)
Coach = Flagicon|Portugal Humberto Coelho
Captain = Radhi Jaidi
Most caps = Sadok Sassi "Attouga" (110)
Top scorer = Francileudo Santos (22)
Home Stadium = Stade 7 November
FIFA Trigramme = TUN
FIFA Rank = 47
FIFA max = 19
FIFA max date = February 1998
FIFA min = 56
FIFA min date = March 2008
Elo Rank = 49
Elo max = 24
Elo max date = June 1978
Elo min = 103
Elo min date = July 1988
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pattern_la2=_whiteborder|pattern_b2=|pattern_ra2=_whiteborder
leftarm2=FF0000|body2=FF0000|rightarm2=FF0000|shorts2=FF0000|socks2=FF0000

First game =flagicon|Tunisia|old Tunisia 2 - 1 Algeria flagicon|Algeria (Tunisia; 25 June, 1957)
Largest win =flagicon|Tunisia Tunisia 7 - 0 Togo flagicon|Togo (Tunis, Tunisia; 7 January, 2000)
flagicon|Tunisia Tunisia 7 - 0 Malawi flagicon|Malawi (Tunis, Tunisia; 26 March, 2005)
Largest loss =flagicon|Hungary|1957 Hungary 10 - 1 Tunisia flagicon|Tunisia|old (Hungary; 24 July, 1960)
World cup apps = 4
World cup first = 1978
World cup best = Round 1, 1978, 1998, 2002, 2006
Regional name = African Nations Cup
Regional cup apps = 13
Regional cup first = 1962
Regional cup best = First place, 2004
Confederations cup apps = 1
Confederations cup first = 2005
Confederations cup best = 1st round, 2005

The Tunisia national football team ( _ar. 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.

World Cup record

African Nations Cup record

*1957 - "Did not enter"
*1959 - "Did not enter"
*1962 - Third place
*1963 - Round 1
*1965 - Second place
*1968 - "Did not qualify"
*1970 to 1974 - "Did not enter"
*1976 - "Did not qualify"
*1978 - Fourth place
*1980 - "Withdrew"
*1982 - Round 1
*1984 to 1992 - "Did not qualify"
*1994 - Round 1
*1996 - Second place
*1998 - Quarterfinals
*2000 - Fourth place
*2002 - Round 1
*2004 - Champions
*2006 - Quarterfinals
*2008 - Quarterfinals

Famous and Retired Players

*Tarek Dhiab
*Sadok_Sassi
*Hamadi Agerbi
*Mokhtar Dhouib
*Mohamed Ali Akid
*Tmim Hzemi
*Ali Kaabi
*Najib Ghommidh
*Mokhtar Naili
*Faouzi Rouissi
*Jameleddine Limam
*Chokri El Ouaer
*Nabil Maaloul
*Adel Sellimi
*Zoubier Baya
*Skander Souayah
*Tarek Thabet
*Hatem Trabelsi
*Mehdi Ben Slimane
*Imed Ben Younes
*Hassen Gabsi
*Raouf Bouzaiene
*José Clayton
*Khaled Badra
*Riadh Bouazizi
*Kaies Ghodhbane
*Ali Boumnijel

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.

Current Squad

Squad for the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification against Burkina Faso on September 6 2008.

Recent call-ups

Coaches

* Rachid Turki 1956-57
* Hachemi Cherif 1957-60
* Milan Kristic 1960-61
* Frane Matošić 1961-63
* André Gérard 1963-65
* Mokhtar Ben Nacef 1965-68
* Rado Radocijic 1968-69
* Beogovic Sereta 1969
* Rado Radocijic 1970
* Hameur Hizem 1970-74
* André Nagy 1974-75
* Abdelmajid Chetali 1975-78
* Hameur Hizem 1978-79
* Ahmed Dhib 1979-80
* Hameur Hizem 1980-81
* Ryszard Kulesza 1981-83
* Youssef Zouaoui 1984-86
* Jean Vincent 1986-87
* Taoufik Ben Othman 1987-88
* Antoni Piechniczek 1988
* Mokhtar Tlili 1988-89
* Antoni Piechniczek 1989
* M'Rad Mahjoub 1990-93
* Youssef Zouaoui 1993-94
* Faouzi Benzarti 1994
* Henryk Kasperczak 1994-98
* Adel Selmi 1998
* Francesco Scoglio 1998-01
* Eckhard Krautzun 2001
* Henri Michel 2001-02
* Amar Souayeh 2002
* Youssef Zouaoui 2002
* Roger Lemerre 2002-08
* Humberto Coelho 2008- [cite news
title= LISTE DES ENTRAÎNEURS NATIONAUX (1956 - 2008)
url=http://www.ftf.org.tn/fr/doc.asp?mcat=20&mrub=158
publisher= Fédrération Tunisienne de Football
accessdate=2008-06-24]

References

External links

* [http://www.ftf.org.tn/ Tunisian FA] official site