Étoile Sportive du Sahel

Étoile 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	Moez Idriss
Manager	Lotfi Rhim
League	CLP-1
2008/09	3rd

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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 the only club in the world, join to Italy's Juventus F.C., to have won all international club competitions organized by their respective continental confederation and the only in Africa to have won all CAF club competitions.^[1]

[edit] 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, and helped Etoile make a bright start to the 2009-2010 season.

Etoile Sahel's Press conference room logo

[edit] 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].

[edit] Performance in national & domestic competitions

Tunisian League (8)
- Champion: 1950¹, 1958, 1963, 1966, 1972, 1986, 1987, 1997, 2007

Tunisian President Cup (7)
- Winner: 1959, 1963, 1974, 1975, 1981, 1983, 1996
- Finalist: 1939¹, 1946¹, 1950¹, 1954¹, 1957, 1958, 1960, 1967, 1991, 1994, 2001, 2008

Tunisian League Cup (1)
- Winner: 2005

[edit] Performance in CAF competitions

African Champions League (1)
- Winner: 2007
- Runner-up: 2004, 2005

CAF Confederation Cup (1)
- Winner: 2006

African Cup Winners' Cup (2)
- Winner: 1997, 2003

CAF Cup (2)
- Winner: 1995, 1999
- Runner-up: 1996, 2001

African Super Cup (2)
- Winner: 1998, 2008
- Runner-up: 2004, 2007

[edit] Performance in UAFA competitions

Arab Cup Winners Cup
- Finalist: 1995

[edit] Performance in other international competitions

FIFA Club World Cup
- Fourth Place in 2007.

Maghreb Champions Cup (1)
- Winner: 1972

Maghreb Cup Winners Cup (1)
- Winner: 1975

¹titles won prior to independence

[edit] Individual Honours

[edit] Top scorers

Habib Mougou : (25 goals)
Habib Mougou : (28 goals)
Othman Jenayah : (15 goals)
Abdesselam Adhouma : (17 goals)
Abdesselam Adhouma : (16 goals)
Raouf Ben Aziza : (20 goals)
Raouf Ben Aziza : (22 goals)
Francileudo dos Santos Silva : (14 goals)

[edit] Golden Boot

Othman Jenayah :
Raouf Ben Aziza :
Kamel Azzabi :
Zoubeïr Beya :

[edit] Arab Golden Boot

Kaïs Ghodhbane : 1999

[edit] Rivalries

Etoile's most fierce rivalry is with Club sportif Sfaxien, as the teams are 2 of Tunisia's finest. Similary, they also have a rivalry with Club Africain. 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.

[edit] Players

[edit] Current squad

No.		Position	Player
		GK	Aymen Mathlouthi
		GK	Mohamed Bouderbala
		GK	Abderrahmane Baâboura
		DF	Ammar Jemal
		DF	Hatem Bejaoui
		DF	Mehdi Meriah
		DF	Aymen Abdennour
		DF	Manga
		DF	Souheïl Ben Radhia
		MF	Mohamed Seddik Jabnoun
		MF	Daïna
		MF	Afouène Gharbi
		MF	Mehdi Msakni
		MF	Mossaâb Sassi
		MF	Slim Mezlini
		MF	Hamdi Mabrouki
		MF	Bassem Ben Nasser

No.		Position	Player
		MF	Mohamed Ali Nafkha
		MF	Mohamed Amine Haj Saïd
		MF	Belgacem Tenniche
		MF	Mohamed Sakho
		MF	Ahmed Mida
		MF	Mejdi Mosrati
		MF	Wadiï Ben Haj Fredj
		MF	Charles Negedu
		MF	François Xavier Koufana Eyengue
		FW	Ahmed Akaïchi
		FW	Emeka Opara
		FW	Yacouba Diarra
		FW	Slim Jedaied
		FW	Mehdi Ben Dhifallah
		FW	Tembo Fwayo
		FW	Tarek Ziadi
		FW	Sadat Bukari