The Tunisia national football team is the national team that represents Tunisia in men's international football, since it played its first match on 2 June 1957 against Libya, which ended with Tunisia winning 4–2. It is a member team of the FIFA internationally and the Confederation of African Football (CAF) on the continent. It is supervised by the Tunisian Football Federation, which was established on 29 March 1957, after Tunisia's independence. Sami Trabelsi has been coaching the team since 10 February 2025, accompanied by his assistant Hammadi Daou. The Tunisian national team is nicknamed the Eagles of Carthage, The team's colors are red and white, similar to the colors of the Tunisian flag, and its symbol is the Bald eagle. There have been periods of regular Tunisian representation at the highest international level: from 1962 to 1978, from 1994 to 2008 and again from 2014 onwards. Most of its matches have been played since 2001 at the Hammadi Agrebi Stadium which is located in the city of Radès, in the southern suburbs of the capital, Tunis. It has a capacity of 60,000.
The Tunisian national team participated in three major football competitions every four years, appeared in the final stages of six FIFA World Cups and twenty participations in the Africa Cup of Nations, and participated in four editions of the Olympic football tournaments. In the 1978 World Cup in Argentina, when it became the first African and Arab team to win a World Cup match by defeating Mexico 3–1 in Tunisia's first match in the competition, and a negative tie with defending champions West Germany, before being eliminated from the group stage, which led finally to an addition of a second team from Africa in the world Cup. After that, the team has qualified for three consecutive tournaments, in 1998, 2002 and 2006 before returning in 2018 and 2022. Despite participating in multiple World Cup tournaments, Tunisia has not yet advanced beyond the group stage, nor qualified for the knockout rounds of the Summer Olympics. In terms of rivalry, the Tunisian national football team plays against North African teams such as Egypt, Morocco, and Algeria. In fact, the Tunisian national team played with them many matches, whether through friendly matches, World Cup qualifiers, Africa Cup of Nations, African Nations Championship and African Nations Cup qualifiers. Tunisia is one of the most successful national teams in African competitions, having won the Africa Cup of Nations at home in 2004, after defeating Morocco in the final. It also achieved the final in 1965 as hosts and 1996 in South Africa. And it achieved third place in 1962. The Tunisian team also won the African Nations Championship its first participation in 2011 that was held in Sudan.
The Tunisian national team is fully recognized by all international sports organizations. In 1960, Tunisia joined the FIFA and the CAF, and joined the UAFA in 1978 and the UNAF in 2005. The biggest loss for the Tunisian team was on 24 July 1960 against Hungary, with a score of 10–1, While the biggest victory was on 12 June 2015 against Djibouti with a score of 8–1. Radhi Jaïdi, with 105 international matches, holds the record for the number of matches played by the Tunisian national team. while Issam Jemâa, with 36 goals, is the top scorer in the history of the selection. The highest rank achieved by the team in the FIFA World Rankings was 14th place in April and May 2018, while the 65th lowest rank was in July 2010. On 17 November 2020, after securing qualification for the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations, the Tunisian team has become the most successful African team to qualify for consecutive times in the history of the competition with 17 consecutive participations as it did not miss the tournament since 1994, breaking the Egyptian team’s record of 14 consecutive participations.
History
1928–1956: French protectorate of Tunisia and beginning Before independence, an unofficial team was formed in 1928, comprising the best Tunisian players from the Tunisian League. The team's first match was on 11 March 1928, against the France national football B team; Tunisia lost 8–2. Their next friendlies, against the same team on 23 March 1930 and 26 March 1933, also resulted in heavy defeats: 0–5 and 1–6 respectively. Tunisia had to wait until 1932 for their first match win: a 1–0 victory over French Algeria. Most of the matches that Tunisia played in the 30s and 40s were against French teams, whether it was French Algeria, the French military team or the France B team, in addition to a match against the France national team in 1941. Most of these matches were played at the Stade Vélodrome in Tunis.
The most capped players of this period are: Gustave Ducousso 22 caps(Olympique Béja), Gaetano Chiarenza 21 caps (CS Hammam-Lif), Azzopardi 19 caps (Olympique Béja), Larbi Ben Hassine 16 caps (Espérance de Tunis), Rachid Sehili 16 caps (ES Sahel), Mehl 15 caps (Racing Club), Laâroussi Tsouri 15 caps (Espérance de Tunis), Ben Moussa 15 caps (US Tunis), Alaya Douik 14 caps (ES Sahel), Dara 11 caps (Sporting Club Tunis).
1956–1962: Post independence, First international participation As soon as independence was proclaimed in 1956, Tunisian football leaders took the necessary steps to create an exclusively national body to replace the Tunisian Football League (an offshoot of the French Football Federation). These steps led to the creation of the Tunisian Football Federation (FTF) headed by Chedly Zouiten, which was approved on 29 March 1957. Recognized as a public utility, the FTF has since invested in its dual mission of promoting football and managing the national competition as well as the different teams representing Tunisia in international competitions. In spite of that, Tunisia's national team has been set up before independence.
Tunisian coach Rachid Turki has been appointed as Tunisia's first coach. A friendly match was held two days before independence, and this was in front of the Southwest French team. Tunisia succeeded in winning the match thanks to the goal of Ghariani. The Tunisian squad was the following: Zine el-Abidine Chennoufi, Sadok Dhaou (then Mohieddine Zeghir), Azaiez Jaballah, Driss Messaoud, Hassen Tasco, Abdou Béji, Ali Hannachi « Haj Ali », Amedée Scorsone, Hédi Braïek, Noureddine Diwa, Khemais Ghariani. The Tunisian team also played a match with the Austrian team FC Admira Wacker Mödling on 30 December of the same year and managed to win 4–1 thanks to two goals from both Diwa and Braïek and the Tunisian squad was as follows : Mohamed Bennour (then Houcine El Bez), Youssef Sehili, Azaiez Jaballah, Mokhtar Ben Nacef, Mehrez Jelassi, Abdou Béji, Ali Hannachi « Haj Ali », Abderrahman Ben Ezzedine, Hédi Braïek, Noureddine Diwa (then Khemais Ghariani), Hammadi Henia
Tunisia gained independence from France on 20 March 1956. The Tunisian Football Federation was founded on 29 March 1957 and became affiliated to FIFA and the Confederation of African Football in 1960. The independent Tunisia played their first match against Algeria on 1 June 1957, in the midst of the Algerian War; Tunisia lost 2–1. They played their first official match at the 1957 Pan Arab Games where they won Libya 4–3 after scoring the first Tunisian goal in an official competition by Farzit. They also managed to get through Iraq and Lebanon before losing in the final against Syria 3–1. In 1960, the Yugoslavian Milan Kristić to be the first foreigner to coach the national team so Tunisia qualified for 1960 Summer Olympics which was their first international event after beating Malta, Morocco and Sudan; on 24 July 1960, the team experienced its biggest-ever defeat, losing 10–1 against Hungary. However, less than a month later, on 18 August 1960, Tunisia recorded their biggest-ever win: an 8–1 thumping of Taiwan. As for the Olympic Games, the results were very poor in the first game and despite the opening of the scoring by Kerrit in the third minute, but the Polish team returned in the game and won 6–1. They also lost to Argentina 2–1 before being defeated again, this time against Denmark 3–1.
1962–1978: Golden generation, First participation in the World Cup Frane Matošić was appointed to coach the team as the second Yugoslav coach of the Tunisian team after Kristić led Tunisia to qualify for the Olympics. In 1962, Tunisia entered the African Cup of Nations qualifiers for the first time: the team qualified for the tournament after overcoming Morocco and Nigeria and went on to finish third after beating Uganda in the third-place match. Tunisian federation has appointed French coach André Gérard to train the team to continue contracting with foreign coaches. The team succeeded in crowning the 1963 Arab Cup to be the first championship for the team, after achieving impressive results, including winning over Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Kuwait.
Tunisia also qualified for the 1963 Africa Cup of Nations despite the exit from the first round. CAF decided that Tunisia would host the 1965 Africa Cup of Nations, despite the fact that only 9 years have passed since the independence of the country, in addition to a distinguished generation of players, most notably Abdelmajid Chetali and Attouga who reached the final after beating Ethiopia 4–0 in the opening match in Stade Chedly Zouiten, but they lost 3–2 to Ghana in extra-time of the final. Despite this early success, Tunisia did not enter the Cup of Nations again until 1976 in Ethiopia, and did not qualify for one until 1978. In 1973, however, the team entered the Palestine Cup of Nations and won in dominant fashion, winning all six of their matches overcoming Syria, Egypt, Palestine, Yemen and Iraq, scoring 19 goals, and conceding only three with the Tunisian coach Ameur Hizem.
In February 1975, after a short experience of the Hungarian coach André Nagy, the coach of ES Sahel, Abdelmajid Chetali was hired. This coincided with the return of the team to the competition in the African Cup of Nations before going out against Sudan before it succeeded to qualify after the absence of 13 years in 1978 after overcoming Egypt and Guinea in qualifying. At the same time, the team was able to qualify for the first time in the FIFA World Cup in 1978 after a remarkable performance in the qualifiers led by a distinguished generation such as Mokhtar Dhouib, Néjib Ghommidh, Raouf Ben Aziza and Tarak Dhiab. They have reserved the only African seat by going to teams such as Morocco, Algeria, Nigeria and Egypt. Before the World Cup, Tunisia competed in the African Cup and won Uganda to find themselves in the semi-finals before losing to hosts Ghana to play third place match with Nigeria. Tunisia initially took the lead, but when Nigeria scored a controversial equalizer in the 42nd minute, the Tunisians walked off the pitch in protest and Nigeria were awarded a 2–0 victory by default. At the World Cup in Argentina, Tunisia made an immediate impact by coming from behind after preparations were not at the desired level after a draw with Hungary 2–2 and a defeat from France 2–0 and another big defeat against Netherlands 4–0.