| Full name | Espérance Sportive de Tunis | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname(s) |
Tarajji - Mkachkha - Sang et Or (Blood & Gold) Founded - January 15, 1919 |
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| Ground | Stade Olympique d'El Menzah Tunis, Tunisia (Capacity: 45,000) |
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| Chairman | Hamdi Meddeb | |||
| Manager | Nabil Maaloul | |||
| League | CLP-1 | |||
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| Espérance's active sections | ||
|---|---|---|
Football |
Handball |
Volleyball |
Rugby |
Swimming |
Wrestling |
Boxing |
Judo |
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Espérance Sportive de Tunis (Arabic: الترجي الرياضي التونسي, also known as EST, tarajji, or Espérance) is a sports club based in Tunis, Tunisia. It fields several sport teams in football, handball, volleyball, etc.
It is the most popular and successful team in Tunisia and was founded on January 15, 1919. The Stade Olympique d'El Menzah is the club's home stadium.
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Mohamed Zouaoui and Hédi Kallel founded the football club in the coffee shop that gave the club its name: the Café de l'Espérance located in the mythical popular neighborhood of Bab Souika . The Espérance Sportive was officially registered on January 15, 1919 and was forced under the occupation to have a French president, Louis Montassier. Months later after hard negotiations with the French authorities, Mohamed Melki stepped in as the first Tunisian club president.
The first colors of EST were white and green. In 1920, the club hired a young high-school pupil, Chadly Zouiten, who provided the club with a set of shirts with red and yellow vertical stripes. These became the new colors of EST. Zouiten became president of the club in 1923, keeping that position for the next four decades. Under his chairmanship, EST rsults were not stellar, until its promotion into the Division d'Honneur de Tunis (Honor Division of Tunis) in 1936. The EST then reached the finals of the Coupe de Tunisie (Tunisia Cup), but the club Stade Gaulois prevailed. Three years after its defeat by the Gaulois, the EST team won the 1939 cup after beating the Etoile Sportive du Sahel, with a final score of 4 to 1.
Between the beginning of World War II and the independence of Tunisia (1956), the EST was home to a selection of skilled players; the Tunis club welcomed a number of Algerian players like Ben Tifour and Draoua. The EST, a "native Tunisian" football club was now a force the French, Italian and Maltese clubs that had dominated football in Tunisia until then had to take seriously.
After 1956 independence, not only Esperance became a multisport club by introducing handball, basketball, volleyball, etc., but also the country's most successful club. The football team which is, still until now, the heart of the club, became popular not only because of the titles it had won (the Champions of Tunisia in 1958 and 1960 and Tunisian Cup winners in 1957) but also because of the team's spectacular and aggressive playing style.
The 1960s however were not as successful as the subsequent decades, winning only one championship (back to back 1959-1960 ... the first in the club history) and one cup (1964). In 1963, the football team converted from its attack-oriented style, after Abderrahmane Ben Ezzedine became its coach. Ben Ezzedine introduced rigorous defensive principles inspired by Italian football.
Noureddine Ben Fraj had contributed great deal to Esperance, known for his powerful headers. Later Noura took his expertise to Saudi Arabia as a manager of Ohud Club. He later returned to take charge of the youth team.
In the 1970s, the club has discovered several great local players, such as Tarak Dhiab, Temime Ben Abdallah later Lahzami, Abdelmajid Ben Mrad, Abdeljabbar Machouche, Abdelkader, Raouf El Meddeb, Kochbati, Torkhani, Mokhtar Gabsi, Ahmed Hammami, El Kamel, Mohamed Ben Mahmoud, Zoubeir Boughnia famous for his powerful shots at a distance, Ridha Akacha, Adel Latrach, Lassâad Dhiab and many more. All these players were picked up from neighbourhood competitions in various districts of Tunis, to mention few, Bab Souika, Bab El Khadhra, Rue Essouahel Halfaouine the heart beat of Esperance. Not to forget Bab Laasal, Bab Lakwas famous for their love of football.
In the 1980s, Esperance came back strong winning 4 chaqmpionships and 3 Cups, all of them againt its main capital rival, Club Africain. In 1982, former president Hassen Belkhoja died in a terrible accident, and the actual club training camp was named after him (Parc Hassen Belkhoja, fromerly known, and still called, Parc B), located in the heart of Tunis. The arrival of great names in the world of football, as Roger Lemerre (France), Amarildo (Brasil) or even Pietchnizeck (Poland) to coach the first team took the club to another dimension football wise. The rise of talented and icon players, such as Khaled Ben Yahia and Nabil Maâloul, but also Samir Khemiri, Fethi Trabelsi, Taoufik Hicheri, Lotfi Jebara, Mondher Baouab, Bessam Jeridi, etc., playing next to the more experienced Tarek Dhiab, Chouchane and Ben Mahmoud to name a few provide the team such a power to becaome the first contender to win it all, especially with some Samba touch from amarildo. The club started back its participation to the african competitions, after the flash of 1971 when the club had to withdraw from the Champions Cup, after qualifying againt Al Ittihad Club of Libya, for lack of resources and schedule problems with national competitions. In 1987, Esperance reached the African Winners Cup finals against Gore Mahia (Kenya), but failed to win the title after twp draws (2-2 in Tunis and 1-1 in Nairobi). In 1989, the club won its first double (championship and cup) and Slim Chiboub became its president.
In the 1990s, under Slim Chiboub revolutionary vision and restructuring, Espérance won all possible titles on the continental level: the African Cup Winners' Cup, the CAF Cup, and the Champions' Cup (now the CAF Champions League) and the African Super Cup, as well as other Arab and Afro-Asian cups. The football team continued to win national titles as well, with an impressive 6 championships and 3 cups.
Since the beginning of the new century, the club has not managed to win any African title, but it has often qualified for advanced rounds in the Champions League. Slim Chiboub had to resign for these failures in 2004, even though the team has been Champion of Tunisia uninterruptedly for seven years, since 1997, reaching the magic number of 20 championships in the club history. His replacement at the presidency of the club, Aziz Zouhir, did not manage to be successful on the continent, even though the team reached 3 cup finals in a row, winnig 2 cups and 1 championship on the national level.
2007–2008 a new era has started with Hamdi Meddeb as president and Tarek Dhiab at the helm of the football pyramid monitoring the heart of the team, Esperance has triumphed over ESS by winning a record 13th President Cup. The football team kept changing with a lot of investments to bring the most talented players, even though it lacked stability on the coaching level, but the team managed to win 2 Champions Leagues (CL), one at the Arab level in 2009 and the other at the African level in 2011, both of them against the same finalist : Wydad Athletic Club (WAC), after failing in 2010 to win the CAF CL against Tout Puissant Mazembe (RD Congo).
Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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