List of Tunisia national football team managers

The Tunisia national football team manager was first established in 1956 following the appointment of the country's first national team manager Rachid Turki. ^[1] Thirty-six men have occupied the post since its inception; five of those were in short-term caretaker manager roles: Faouzi Benzarti in two terms (one game in charge in 1994 and four games in 2010), Sami Trabelsi (six games in 2011 until he was appointed full-time), Ruud Krol (two games), Montasser Louhichi (four games) and Kais Yaâkoubi (two games). ^[2]

Roger Lemerre held the position for the longest to date with a tenure of six years leading the team in 67 matches, more than any other manager in Tunisia's history. ^[3] He is also the most successful manager after winning the 2004 Africa Cup of Nations, reaching 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup and qualifying for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Yugoslav coach Milan Kristić became the first foreign manager of the team in 1960. ^[4] France has the largest number of managers to have coached Tunisia, with six managers.

In 2024, a coaching dispute occurred in the team, as three coaches took turns in charge of the team after the dismissal of Jalel Kadri on 24 January. Montasser Louhichi was appointed temporarily on 26 January for two friendly matches in June and the third and fourth matchdays of the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification, ^[5] and then Faouzi Benzarti was appointed on 1 July, the fourth time he had taken over the task in his career, ^[6] leading the team in four matches of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualification after two wins, a draw and a defeat, he resigned from his position and was replaced by his assistant Kais Yaâkoubi temporarily on 5 November, ^{[7] [8]} leading the team during the fifth and sixth days of the Afcon qualifiers, where he led the team to qualify after a win and a defeat.

Position

Mondher Kebaier (right) coached Tunisia from 2019 to 2022, and then his assistant Jalel Kadri (left) took over the team's coaching from 2022 to 2024.

Role

The Tunisia manager's role means he has sole responsibility for all on-the-field elements of the Tunisian team. Among other activities, this includes selecting the national team squad, the starting team, captain, tactics, substitutes and penalty-takers.

The coach has a relative freedom to choose his staff as some of coaches refused to coach the Tunisian national team due to the Tunisian Football Federation’s refusal to appoint foreign assistant coaches. This was the case with Jacques Santini in 2008 and Raymond Domenech. However, the Tunisian Football Federation agreed to Henryk Kasperczak's proposal in 2015 to appoint Frenchman Patrick Hesse to the team.

Appointment

The process of appointing a new Tunisia manager is undertaken by a FTF committee, which is composed of board members and other high-ranking FTF officials. Every time this process is subject to controversy because the committee includes former coaches who did not succeed with the national team, such as Youssef Zouaoui and Mokhtar Tlili.

List

As of 18 November 2024 after match against   Gambia .

Manager	Nat	From	To	Pld	W	D	L	Win %	Tournaments
Rachid Turki		1956	1957	0	0	0	0	0.00%	—
Habib Draoua (DTN) Hechmi Cherif Larbi Soudani		1957	1960	15	7	2	6	46.67%	—
Milan Kristić		1960	1961	23	5	4	14	21.74%	1960 Summer Olympic Games – Group stage 1962 FIFA World Cup – Failed to qualify
Frane Matošić		1961	1962	6	1	2	3	16.67%	1962 African Cup of Nations – Third place
André Gérard		1963	1965	34	15	9	10	44.12%	1963 Arab Cup – Champions 1963 African Cup of Nations – Group stage
Mokhtar Ben Nacef		1965	1968	15	5	8	2	33.33%	1965 African Cup of Nations – Runners-up 1968 African Cup of Nations – Failed to qualify
Radojica Radojičić		17 November 1968	17 April 1969	9	2	3	4	22.22%	—
Sereta Begović		27 April 1969	13 June 1969	5	0	4	1	0.00%	1970 FIFA World Cup – Failed to qualify
Hameur Hizem (1)		11 November 1970	16 July 1974	33	16	6	11	48.48%	1974 FIFA World Cup – Failed to qualify
Andrej Prean Nagy		September 1974	February 1975	10	4	1	5	40.00%	—
Abdelmajid Chetali [9]		12 February 1975	20 December 1978	52	18	18	16	34.61%	1976 African Cup of Nations – Failed to qualify 1978 African Cup of Nations – Fourth Place 1978 FIFA World Cup – Group stage
Hameur Hizem (2)		December 1978	April 1979	3	1	1	1	33.33%	—
Ahmed Dhib		July 1979	August 1980	14	3	3	5	21.43%	1982 FIFA World Cup – Failed to qualify
Ryszard Kulesza		August 1981	December 1983	25	10	5	10	40.00%	1982 African Cup of Nations – Group stage 1984 African Cup of Nations – Failed to qualify
Youssef Zouaoui (1)		September 1984	February 1986	26	13	3	8	54.16%	1986 African Cup of Nations – Failed to qualify 1986 FIFA World Cup – Failed to qualify
Jean Vincent		October 1986	April 1987	10	1	2	7	10.00%	1988 African Cup of Nations – Failed to qualify
Taoufik Ben Othman		September 1987	July 1988	16	4	3	9	25.00%	—
Antoni Piechniczek (1)		August 1988	September 1988	9	3	3	3	33.33%	1988 Summer Olympic Games – Group stage
Mokhtar Tlili		November 1988	July 1989	14	3	4	7	21.43%	1990 African Cup of Nations – Failed to qualify
Antoni Piechniczek (2)		July 1989	November 1989	8	2	2	4	25.00%	1990 FIFA World Cup – Failed to qualify
Mrad Mahjoub		April 1990	February 1993	26	8	13	5	30.77%	1992 African Cup of Nations – Failed to qualify 1994 FIFA World Cup – Failed to qualify
Youssef Zouaoui (2)		March 1993	March 1994	13	4	6	3	30.77%	—
Faouzi Benzarti (1; caretaker)		March 1994	March 1994	1	0	1	0	0.00%	1994 African Cup of Nations – Group stage
Henryk Kasperczak (1)		May 1994	June 1998	59	30	11	18	50.84%	1996 African Cup of Nations – Runners-up 1996 Summer Olympic Games – Group stage 1998 African Cup of Nations – Quarter-finals 1998 FIFA World Cup – Group stage
Franco Scoglio		September 1998	February 2001	32	19	8	5	59.73%	2000 African Cup of Nations – Fourth Place
Eckhard Krautzun		March 2001	July 2001	7	4	2	1	57.14%	2002 FIFA World Cup – Group stage
Henri Michel		28 November 2001	13 March 2002	6	2	2	2	33.33%	2002 African Cup of Nations – Group stage
Ammar Souayah		March 2002	July 2002	6	0	3	3	0.00%	—
Roger Lemerre [10]		25 September 2002	30 June 2008	67	40	15	12	59.70%	2004 African Cup of Nations – Champions 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup – Group stage 2006 Africa Cup of Nations  – Quarter-finals 2006 FIFA World Cup – Group stage 2008 Africa Cup of Nations – Quarter-finals
Humberto Coelho [11]		30 June 2008	18 November 2009	15	5	4	3	33.33%	2009 African Nations Championship – Failed to qualify 2010 FIFA World Cup – Failed to qualify
Faouzi Benzarti (2) [12]		23 November 2009	23 January 2010	4	0	3	1	0.00%	2010 Africa Cup of Nations – Group stage
Bertrand Marchand [13]		4 June 2010	15 December 2010	6	3	1	2	50.00%	—
Sami Trabelsi [14]		11 March 2011	8 February 2013	32	13	9	10	40.63%	2011 African Nations Championship – Champions 2012 Africa Cup of Nations – Quarter-finals 2013 Africa Cup of Nations – Group stage
Nabil Maâloul (1)		14 February 2013	8 September 2013	7	2	3	2	28.57%	2014 African Nations Championship – Failed to qualify
Ruud Krol (caretaker) [15] [16]		18 September 2013	17 November 2013	2	0	1	1	0.00%	2014 FIFA World Cup – Failed to qualify
Georges Leekens [17]		27 March 2014	26 June 2015	19	7	8	4	36.84%	2015 Africa Cup of Nations – Quarter-finals
Henryk Kasperczak (2) [18] [19]		13 July 2015	7 April 2017	26	12	5	10	46.15%	2016 African Nations Championship – Quarter-finals 2017 Africa Cup of Nations – Quarter-finals
Nabil Maâloul (2) [20]		27 April 2017	12 July 2018	13	6	4	3	46.15%	2018 FIFA World Cup – Group stage
Faouzi Benzarti (3) [21]		28 July 2018	20 October 2018	3	3	0	0	100.00%	—
Alain Giresse [22] [23]		14 December 2018	21 August 2019	12	5	4	3	41.67%	2019 Africa Cup of Nations – Fourth Place
Mondher Kebaier [24] [25]		29 August 2019	30 January 2022	31	19	4	8	61.29%	2021 FIFA Arab Cup – Runners-up 2021 Africa Cup of Nations – Quarter-finals
Jalel Kadri [26]		30 January 2022	24 January 2024	27	14	7	6	51.85%	2022 FIFA World Cup – Group stage 2023 Africa Cup of Nations – Group stage
Montasser Louhichi (caretaker) [27] [28]		26 January 2024	30 June 2024	4	1	3	0	25.00%	—
Faouzi Benzarti (4) [29] [30]		1 July 2024	22 October 2024	4	2	1	1	50.00%	—
Kais Yaâkoubi (caretaker) [31]		5 November 2024	18 November 2024	2	1	0	1	50.00%	—
Sami Trabelsi (2)		10 February 2025	Present	0	0	0	0	0.00%	—

Statistics

Roger Lemerre is the coach who spent the longest period with Tunisia between 2002 and 2008 and is also considered the most successful coach, having led the team to win the only Africa Cup of Nations in 2004.

Faouzi Benzarti is the only coach to take charge of Tunisia in 4 terms.

	Nat	Manager	Stats
First coach		Rachid Turki	1956
Longest period		Roger Lemerre	5 years, 280 days
Shortest period		Faouzi Benzarti (1)	4 days
Most matches		Roger Lemerre	67 matches
Less matches		Faouzi Benzarti (1)	1 match
Most wins		Roger Lemerre	40 wins
Most defeats		Henryk Kasperczak (1)	18 defeats
Highest win%		Faouzi Benzarti (3)	100.00%
Lowest win%		Sereta Begović Ammar Souayah Faouzi Benzarti (1&2) Ruud Krol	0.00%

By nationality

Country	Managers
Tunisia	17
France	6
Poland	3
Yugoslavia
Algeria	1
Belgium
Croatia
Germany
Hungary
Italy
Netherlands
Portugal

References

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2. "Portail internet de la Fédération Tunisienne de Football". Archived from the original on 2009-05-23. Retrieved 2008-06-24.
3. "Lemerre sacked as Tunisia coach". Jp.soccerway.com. 14 February 2008. Retrieved 28 April 2011.
4. "Entraîneurs Nationaux" (in French). Tunisian Football Federation. Archived from the original on 22 October 2011. Retrieved 21 November 2011.
5. "SU Cup Cairo : Quel visage pour la Tunisie version Montassar Louhichi face à la Croatie ?". www.kawarji.com. Retrieved 2025-01-13.
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8. Presse, La (2024-10-26). "Equipe nationale : Kaïs Yaâkoubi remplace Benzarti". La Presse de Tunisie (in French). Retrieved 2025-01-13.
9. "Abdelmajid Chétali: L'artisan de l'épopée argentine". Leaders (in French). Retrieved 2024-06-15.
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11. BO (2024-06-14). "Coelho s'occupera de la Tunisie". DHnet (in French). Retrieved 2024-06-15.
12. "Faouzi Benzarti aux commandes de l'EN à la CAN 2010". E-S-Tunis.com (in French). 2009-11-18. Retrieved 2024-06-15.
13. "[EN] Bertrand Marchand nouveau sélectionneur". Tunisie-Foot (in French). Retrieved 2024-06-15.
14. "Sami Trabelsi nouvel entraîneur de la sélection nationale". E-S-Tunis.com (in French). 2011-03-11. Retrieved 2024-06-15.
15. "Krol appointed interim Tunisia coach". BBC Sport. Retrieved 2024-02-02.
16. "Football : Ruud Krol, nouveau sélectionneur de la Tunisie - Jeune Afrique.com". JeuneAfrique.com (in French). Retrieved 2024-06-15.
17. "Le Belge Georges Leekens nouveau sélectionneur de la Tunisie". RFI (in French). 2014-03-27. Retrieved 2024-06-15.
18. "Tunisie : Henryk Kasperczak nommé sélectionneur des Aigles de Carthage - Jeune Afrique.com". JeuneAfrique.com (in French). Retrieved 2024-02-02.
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21. "Faouzi Benzarti returns as Tunisia's new national coach". BBC Sport. 20 July 2018.
22. "Tunisia name Frenchman Alain Giresse as new coach". BBC Sport. 13 December 2018. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
23. Khmira, Souhail (21 August 2019). "Tunisia part ways with coach Alain Giresse by mutual consent". BBC Sport. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
24. "Kebaier appointed as Tunisia coach". BBC Sport. Retrieved 2024-02-02.
25. Bouchet, Stevie G. (2022-02-02). "Mondher Kebaier limogé de son poste de sélectionneur de la Tunisie". foot-paul.com (in French). Retrieved 2024-02-02.
26. FIAUDRIN, Aymeric (2024-01-24). "CAN. Jalel Kadri annonce sa démission après l'élimination de la Tunisie". Ouest-France.fr (in French). Retrieved 2024-02-02.
27. "Tunisie : Anis Boussaidi et Montassar Louhichi assurent l'intérim à la tête du Onze national". Webdo TN (in French). 2024-01-27. Retrieved 2024-02-02.
28. "Anis Boussaidi et Montassar Louhichi sur le banc de la sélection tunisienne". www.kawarji.com. Retrieved 2024-02-02.
29. "Faouzi Benzarti, sélectionneur de l'équipe nationale". Mosaique FM (in French). Retrieved 2024-06-15.
30. "Faouzi Benzarti à la tête de la sélection tunisienne". www.kawarji.com. Retrieved 2024-06-15.
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