Étoile Sportive du Sahel

Étoile du Sahel
Full name Étoile Sportive du Sahel
Nickname(s) Brigade rouge (red squad)
Founded May 11, 1925
Ground Stade Olympique de Sousse
Sousse, Tunisia
(Capacity: 25,000)
Chairman Hafedh Hemayed
Manager Mondher Kbayer
League CLP-1
Home colours
Away colours

The Étoile Sportive du Sahel (ESS) (Arabic: النـجـم الرياضي الساحلي‎, often referred to as Étoile du Sahel, Arabic: النـجـم الساحلي‎) is a sports club from Sousse in the Sahel region of Tunisia, known primarily for its football team. The club also has sections for handball, volleyball, basketball, judo and wrestling. In English the name means Sport (or Athletic) Star of the Sahel.

Étoile is one of the two clubs in the world, together with Italy's Juventus F.C., to have won all international club competitions organized by their respective continental confederation and the only one in Africa to have won all CAF club competitions.[1]

Contents

History

The club was founded during a public meeting at the French-Arabic school on Laroussi Zarrouk Street, in Sousse. Chedli Boujemla was elected as the first chairman of the multi-sport club. La Soussienne and La Musulmane ("The Muslim") were rejected as club names in favor of L'Étoile Sportive. Club members eventually settled on L'Étoile Sportive du Sahel to reflect the goal of representing a broader region than Sousse alone. The Protectorate administration officially recognized the club on July 17, 1925. In March 1926, Ali Larbi became chairman of the soccer section of the club, which entered the Fédération Tunisienne de Football.

L'Étoile became the Islamic club in Sousse. Tunisia also had the French Patriote de Sousse club, the Jewish Maccabi club, the Italian La Savoia club and the Maltese Red Star club: Though communitarian football had been banned officially since 1919 in Tunisia, in reality, it still existed.

ESS's first major honour was the Tunisian Ligue Professionnelle 1 title in 1950, but they had to wait 8 years to pick it up again. They won their first Tunisian President Cup in 1959, and completed a league and cup double in 1963 - becoming one of the first Tunisian teams to do so. But ESS struggled throughout the 1970s and 1980s, although they did manage to win back-to-back league titles in 1986 and 1987. In 1995 Etoile won their first continental trophy, winning the CAF Cup. 2 years later in 1997 they completed a league and African Cup Winners Cup double, and they continued to impress on the continental stage - they won the African Super Cup in 1998 and the CAF Cup (for the 2nd time) in 1999. But Sahel's problem was that they struggled domestically - a perfect example was when they won the league in 1987 and failed to win it again until 10 years later. It was exactly the same in 1997. They won the African Cup Winners Cup (for the 2nd time) in 2003, and made it to their 1st ever African Champions League final a year later, but lost to Nigerian outfit Enyimba on penalties. ESS lost in the final of the same competition the following season, being defeated by Egyptian giants Al-Ahly 3-0 over 2 legs. Although, they did have some success that year - winning the Tunisian League Cup for the first time in their history. In 2006 Etoile won the CAF Confederation Cup for the first time, but continued to struggle in the league. But the 2006-2007 season proved to be possibly the greatest season in the club's history - they won the CLP 1 title and the African Champions League title (for the first time). The final of the Champions League that year was a memorable one, as ESS played Al-Ahly in a repeat of the 2005 final. The first leg finished 0-0 in Sousse, and with ESS huge underdogs, they won 3-1 in Egypt to take the trophy. But despite this they missed out on the league again the following campaign (after losing on the last day of the season) and then in 2008-2009 they finished 3rd, which meant manager Gernot Rohr was sacked. Lofti Rhim then became manager but just till October 2009, Lotfi Rhim resignition held Dr Hamed Kammoun (Vice president at that time and currently president) to call the club son Khaled Ben Sassi who did a good performance till the winter of 2009. On December 22, Piet Hamberg became General manager and the first Dutch who take a such position in a Tunisian club. Hamberg could not finish the season and was fired after a defeat against historical rivals club africain 3-0. Coach assistant Mohamed Mkacher and the youth team trainer Naoufel Team were appointed for the rest of the season. A new exprerience with the former Morocco national coach Mohamed Fakher just started on June 2010 along with a huge recruitment campaign for the coming season.

Etoile's active sections

Football

Handball

Volleyball

Basketball

Wrestling

Judo

Honours & Achievements

Étoile Sportive du Sahel was the first African squad to have won all official club competition recognized by Confederation of African Football [2].

Performance in national & domestic competitions

1958, 1963, 1966, 1972, 1986, 1987, 1997, 2007
1959, 1963, 1974, 1975, 1981, 1983, 1996
Finalist: 1939¹, 1946¹, 1950¹, 1954¹, 1957, 1958, 1960, 1967, 1991, 1994, 2001, 2008,2011
2005
1973

Performance in CAF competitions

2007
Runner-up: 2004, 2005
2006
1997, 2003
1995, 1999
Runner-up: 1996, 2001
1998, 2008
Runner-up: 2004, 2007

Performance in UAFA competitions

Finalist: 1995

Performance in other international competitions

2007 - Fourth Place
1972
1975

¹titles won prior to independence

Individual Honours

Top scorers

Golden Boot

Arab Golden Boot

Rivalries

Etoile's most fierce rivalry is with Esperance Sportive de Tunis, as the teams are 2 of Tunisia's finest. Similary, they also have a rivalry with Club Africain and Club Sportif Sfaxien. In terms of location, ESS are quite an isolated club, so games against US Monastir and ES Hammam-Sousse (the latter are from a town just north of Sousse) are considered local derbies.

Players

Current squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player
1 GK Aymen Mathlouthi
2 DF Gladys Bokese
3 DF Ghazi Abderrazzak
4 DF Radhouene Felhi
5 FW Francileudo Santos
6 DF Hatem Bejaoui
8 FW Justin Junior Mengolo
9 FW Marouène Belghoul
10 MF Danilo Bueno
11 MF Mossaâb Sassi
13 MF Issam Jebali
14 MF Adel Chedli
15 DF Sami Torkhani
16 GK Mohamed Bouderbala
No. Position Player
17 MF Wael Bellakhal
18 FW Lasaad Jaziri
19 DF Mohamed Ali Nafkha (on loan from FC Zürich)
20 FW Yacouba Diarra
22 GK Nadim Thabet
23 FW Amine Ltaïef
24 MF Abdel Meïté
25 DF Fahd Chagra
26 DF Rami Bedoui
27 MF Mokhtar Lamhene
29 FW Lamjed Chehoudi
30 FW Fwayo Tembo
31 MF Emmanuel Ngama
32 DF Chamseddine Dhaouadi
35 FW Phinda Dlamini
40 DF Zainadine Júnior
45 FW Liban Abdi

Staff

Management

Sport

https://www.facebook.com/pages/esssimply-the-BEST-2/126290560754756?ref=pb

Selected Reserve/Youth Team players

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player
GK Abderrahmane Baâboura
DF Nabil Hadded
DF Maher JabAllah
DF Saddam Ben Aziza
DF Nafaa Jebali
DF Mohamed Houssem Slimene
MF Mohamed Wael Larbi
No. Position Player
MF Marconi de Oliveira
MF Samaris
MF Daïna
FW Abdulaye Baba Sylla
FW Alaa Ed'Dine Abbes
FW Eric Asamoah-Frimpong
FW Cheikh Dhiouf

Former Personal

Former Players

Africa:

Americas:

Europe:

Presidents

  • Chédly Boujemla (1925-26)
  • Ali Laârbi (1926-27)
  • Ali Laâdhari (1929-32)
  • M'hammed Maârouf (1932-35)
  • Hamed Akacha (1935-44)
  • M'hamed Ghachem (1944-53)
  • Sadok Mellouli (1953-54)
  • Abdelhamid Sakka (1954-56)
  • Ali Driss (1956-59)
  • Mohamed Atoui (1959-60)
  • Ali Driss (1960-61)
  • Hamed Karoui (1961-81)
  • Adeljelil Bouraoui (1981-84)
  • Hamadi Mestiri (1984-88)
  • Adeljelil Bouraoui (1988-90)
  • Hamadi Mestiri (1990-93)
  • Othman Jenayah (1993-06)
  • Moez Driss (2006-09)
  • Hamed Kammoun (2009-2011)
  • Hafedh Hmaied (2011-today)

Former Coaches

  • Ali Dardour (1926–29)
  • Abdelhamid Beddaï (1929–34)
  • Mohamed Boudhina (1934–53)
  • Rachid Sehili (1953–54)
  • Roger Chrétin (1954–55)
  • Boumedienne Abderrahmane (1955–56)
  • Georges Berry (1956–58)
  • Habib Mougou (1958–59)
  • Said Ibrahimi (1959–60)
  • Bozidar Drenovac (1960–65)
  • Alexeï Paramanov (1965–67)
  • Bella Harzeg (1968)
  • Turay, Béchir Jerbi (1968–69)
  • Habib Mougou (1969)
  • Bozidar Drenovac (1969–70)
  • Abdelmajid Chetali (1970–75)
  • Raouf Ben Amor (1975–76)
  • Alexeï Paramanov (1976–77)

Notes

  1. ^ "Ghanaians headline African club action". FIFA.com. 2011-03-18. http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/clubfootball/news/newsid=1400927.html. Retrieved 2011-04-02. 
  2. ^ African club competitions recognized by CAF - Record Sport Soccer Statistics Foundation - www.rsssf.com.

External links