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, 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 2006–07 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 2008–09 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.
Étoile Sahel's Press conference room logo
Rivalries
Etoile's most fierce rivalry is with Espérance de Tunis, as the teams are two of Tunisia's finest. Similarly, they also have a rivalry with Club Africain and CS 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.
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
- Runners-up: 2004, 2005
- 2006, 2015
- Runners-up: 2008
- 1997, 2003
- 1995, 1999
- Runners-up: 1996, 2001
- 1998, 2008
- Runners-up: 2004, 2007, 2016
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
- 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 Santos: 14 goals
- Chermitii Amine: 15 goals
Golden Boot
- Othman Jenayah
- Raouf Ben Aziza
- Kamel Azzabi
- Zoubeïr Baya
Arab Golden Boot
Current Squad
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Staff
- President: Ridha Charfeddine
- Executive Director: Hussein Jenayah
- Sporting Director: Ziad Jaziri
- Head coach: Faouzi Benzarti
- Assistant coach: Ridha Jeddi
- Physical coach: Taoufik Harzi
- Mental coach: Souhail Bannour
- Goalkeeping coach: Tarak Abdelalim
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)
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- 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)
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- Adeljelil Bouraoui (1988–90)
- Hamadi Mestiri (1990–93)
- Othman Jenayah (1993-06)
- Moez Driss (2006–09)
- Hamed Kammoun (2009–11)
- Hafedh Hemayed (2011–12)
- Ridha Charfeddine (2012–present)
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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 (July 1, 1956 – June 30, 1958)- Habib Mougou (1958–59)
- Said Ibrahimi (1959–60)
 Božidar Drenovac (1960–65) Aleksei Paramonov (1965–67)-
 Bella Harzeg (1968)
- Turay, Béchir Jerbi (1968–69)
- Habib Mougou (1969)
- Božidar Drenovac (1969–70)
- Abdelmajid Chetali (July 1, 1970 – June 30, 1975)
- Raouf Ben Amor (1975–76)
- Aleksei Paramonov (1976–77)
- Raouf Ben Amor, Aleksei Paramonov (1977–78)
- Ammar Ben Ahmed (1978–80)
- Mohsen Habacha (1980–83)
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- Dragan Vasiljević (1983–84)
- Ammar Ben Ahmed (1984–85)
- Amor Dhib (1985–86)
- Faouzi Benzarti (1986–88)
- Nicolaï Koudiev (1988–89)
 Asparuh Nikodimov (1989–90)- Raouf Ben Amor, Ammar Ben Ahmed (1990–91)
- Faouzi Benzarti (1991–92)
 Ivan Chteline (1992–93)- Rabah Saâdane, Ahmed Ajlani (1993–94)
 Dutra (July 1, 1994 – June 30, 1997) Ivan Buljan, Amor Méziane (1997–98)- Jean Fernandez (July 1, 1998 – June 30, 1999)
- Lotfi Benzarti (1999–00)
- Mahieddine Khalef, Abderrazzak Chebbi,
 Ivica Todorov (2000–01)
- Ammar Souayeh, Khaled Ben Sassi,
Bernard Casoni (July 1, 2001 – June 30, 2002)
- Paulo Rubim, Ammar Souayah (2002–03)
- René Lobello (July 1, 2003 – Dec 13, 2003)
- Bernard Simondi (Jan 23, 2004 – June 30, 2004)
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- Mrad Mahjoub, Abdelmajid Chétali,
Ammar Souayeh (2004–05)
-
 M. Baždarević (July 1, 2005 – April 11, 2006)
- Faouzi Benzarti (April 14, 2006 – May 30, 2007)
- Bertrand Marchand (June 1, 2007 – June 30, 2008)
 Michel Decastel (May 2008 – Nov 08) Gernot Rohr (Nov 27, 2008 – May 15, 2009)- Lotfi Rhim (May 27, 2009 – Dec 16, 2009)
- Khaled Ben Sassi (Nov 1, 2009 – Dec 21, 2009)
 Piet Hamberg (Dec 22, 2009 – April 16, 2010)- Mohamed Mkacher (April 15, 2010 – June 30, 2010)
 Mohamed Fakhir (July 1, 2010 – Oct 4, 2010)- Mondher Kbaier (Oct 4, 2010 – Oct 3, 2011)
- Khaled Ben Sassi (Oct 3, 2011 – Feb 12, 2012)
 Bernd Krauss (Feb 12, 2012 – March 26, 2012)- Faouzi Benzarti (March 27, 2012 – June 10, 2012)
- Mondher Kbaier (June 12, 2012 – Feb 27, 2013)
- Denis Lavagne (Feb 28, 2013 – Dec 8,2013)
- Roger Lemerre (Dec 8, 2013 – June 30, 2014)
- Dragan Cvetković (July 10, 2014 – Aug 11, 2014)
- Faouzi Benzarti (Aug 12, 2014–....)
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See also
Notes
External links
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| | League system | |
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| | Domestic cups | |
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| | Awards |
- Footballer of the Year
- Top scorers
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| | Lists |
- All-time Table
- Champions
- Clubs
- International footballers
- Foreign players
- Venues
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- Men's clubs
- Women's clubs
- Men's players
- Women's players
- Expatriate players
- Managers
- Referees
- Venues
- Seasons
- Records
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| | African Cup of Champions Clubs | |
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| | CAF Champions League | |
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| | African Cup Winners' Cup | |
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| | CAF Cup | |
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| | CAF Confederation Cup | |
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