Étoile Sportive du Sahel

Étoile du Sahel, ESS
Full name Étoile Sportive du Sahel
Nickname(s) Diables Rouges (Red Devils)
Founded May 11, 1925
Ground Stade Olympique de Sousse
Sousse, Tunisia
Ground Capacity 25,000
Chairman Ridha Charfeddine
Manager Faouzi Benzarti
League CLP-1
2014–15 2nd

The Étoile Sportive du Sahel (ESS, Arabic: النـجـم الرياضي الساحلي‎), also known as Étoile du Sahel (Arabic: النـجـم الساحلي‎), is a sports club from Sousse in the Sahel region of Tunisia, known primarily for its football and basketball team. The club also has sections for handball, volleyball, 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 continental club competitions organized by their respective confederation and the only one to have won all African competitions.[1]

The club is considered to be one of the best clubs in Tunisia.

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.

Its first team members were Mohamed Bouraoui, Abdelkader Ben Amor, Abdelhamid Baddaï, Sadok Zmentar, Sadok Chalouat, Ali Guermachi, Mohamed Mtir, Benaïssa Hicheri, Béchir Dardour et Tahar Kenani.

Bouha, the official mascot of the club

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 two 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
Étoile Sahel's Press conference room logo

Honours and 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

1950, 1958, 1963, 1966, 1972, 1986, 1987, 1997, 2007
1959, 1963, 1974, 1975, 1981, 1983, 1996, 2012, 2014, 2015
Finalist: 1939¹, 1946¹, 1950¹, 1954¹, 1957, 1958, 1960, 1967, 1991, 1994, 2001, 2008, 2011
2005
1973, 1986, 1987

Performance in CAF competitions

2007
Runner-up: 2004, 2005
2006, 2015
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 – third 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 two of Tunisia's finest. Similarly, 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.

Staff

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 Hemayed (2011-2012)
  • Ridha Charfeddine (2012-present)

Former coaches

  • Tunisia Ali Dardour (1926–29)
  • Tunisia Abdelhamid Beddaï (1929–34)
  • Tunisia Mohamed Boudhina (1934–53)
  • Tunisia Rachid Sehili (1953–54)
  • France Roger Chrétin (1954–55)
  • Algeria France Boumedienne Abderrahmane (1955–56)
  • England Georges Berry (July 1, 1956–June 30, 1958)
  • Tunisia Habib Mougou (1958–59)
  • Algeria Said Ibrahimi (1959–60)
  • Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Božidar Drenovac (1960–65)
  • Soviet Union Alexeï Paramanov (1965–67)
  • France Hungary Bella Harzeg (1968)
  • Hungary Turay, Tunisia Béchir Jerbi (1968–69)
  • Tunisia Habib Mougou (1969)
  • Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Božidar Drenovac (1969–70)
  • Tunisia Abdelmajid Chetali (July 1, 1970–June 30, 1975)
  • Tunisia Raouf Ben Amor (1975–76)
  • Soviet Union Alexeï Paramanov (1976–77)
  • Tunisia Raouf Ben Amor, Soviet Union Alexeï Paramanov (1977–78)
  • Tunisia Ammar Ben Ahmed (1978–80)
  • Tunisia Mohsen Habacha (1980–83)

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Excluding inter-confederation competitions such as Afro-Asian Championship, Intercontinental Cup or Club World Cup, cf. "Ghanaians headline African club action". FIFA.com. 2011-03-18. Retrieved 2011-04-02.
  2. ↑ African club competitions recognized by CAF – Record Sport Soccer Statistics Foundation – www.rsssf.com.

External links

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