List of Tunisia national football team managers

Roger Lemerre, the coach who won the only African Cup Tunisia had.

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; three 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) and Ruud Krol (two games).

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. 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.

France has the largest number of managers to have coached Tunisia, with six managers.

Position[]

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.

List[]

As of 20 January 2022 after match against  Gambia.

Manager	Nat	Period	Pld	Won	Drawn	Lost	Win%	Results
Rachid Turki		1956–1957	0	0	0	0	0.00%	N/A
Hechmi Cherif Larbi Soudani Habib Draoua		1957–1960	15	7	2	6	46.67%	N/A
Milan Kristić		1960–1961	23	5	4	14	21.74%	1960 Olympic Games – Group stage 1962 World Cup – Failed to qualify
Frane Matošić		1961–1962	6	1	2	3	16.67%	AFCON 1962 – Third place
André Gérard		1963–1965	34	15	9	10	44.12%	1963 Arab Cup – Champions
Mokhtar Ben Nacef		1965–1968	15	5	8	2	33.33%	AFCON 1965 – Runners-up AFCON 1968 – Failed to qualify
Radojica Radojičić		1968–1970	9	2	3	4	22.22%	N/A
Sereta Begović		1969	5	0	4	1	0.00%	1970 World Cup – Failed to qualify
Ameur Hizem (1)		1970–1974	33	16	6	11	48.48%	1974 World Cup – Failed to qualify
André Nagy		1974–1975	10	4	1	5	40.00%	N/A
Abdelmajid Chetali		1975–1978	52	18	18	16	34.61%	AFCON 1976 – Failed to qualify AFCON 1978 – Fourth Place 1978 World Cup – Group stage
Ameur Hizem (2)		1978–1979	3	1	1	1	33.33%	N/A
Hmid Dhib		1979–1980	14	3	3	5	21.43%	1982 World Cup – Failed to qualify
Ryszard Kulesza		1981–1983	25	10	5	10	40.00%	AFCON 1982 – Group stage AFCON 1984 – Failed to qualify
Youssef Zouaoui (1)		1984–1986	26	13	3	8	54.16%	AFCON 1986 – Failed to qualify 1986 World Cup – Failed to qualify
Jean Vincent		1986–1987	10	1	2	7	10.00%	AFCON 1988 – Failed to qualify
Taoufik Ben Othman		1987–1988	16	4	3	9	25.00%	N/A
Antoni Piechniczek (1)		1988	9	3	3	3	33.33%	1988 Olympic Games – Group stage
Mokhtar Tlili		1988–1989	14	3	4	7	21.43%	AFCON 1990 – Failed to qualify
Antoni Piechniczek (2)		1989	8	2	2	4	25.00%	1990 World Cup – Failed to qualify
Mrad Mahjoub		1990–1993	26	8	13	5	30.77%	AFCON 1992 – Failed to qualify 1994 World Cup – Failed to qualify
Youssef Zouaoui (2)		1993–1994	13	4	6	3	30.77%	N/A
Faouzi Benzarti (1)		1994	1	0	1	0	0.00%	AFCON 1994 – Group stage
Henryk Kasperczak (1)		1994–1998	59	30	11	18	50.84%	AFCON 1996 – Runners-up 1996 Olympic Games – Group stage AFCON 1998 – Quarterfinals 1998 World Cup – Group stage
Francesco Scoglio		1998–2001	32	19	8	5	59.73%	AFCON 2000 – Fourth Place
Eckhard Krautzun		2001	7	4	2	1	57.14%	2002 World Cup – Group stage
Henri Michel		2001–2002	6	2	2	2	33.33%	AFCON 2002 – Group stage
Ammar Souayah		2002	6	0	3	3	0.00%	N/A
Roger Lemerre		2002–2008	67	40	15	12	59.70%	AFCON 2004 – Champions 2005 Confederations Cup – Group stage AFCON 2006  – Quarterfinals 2006 World Cup – Group stage AFCON 2008 – Quarterfinals
Humberto Coelho		2008–2009	15	5	4	3	33.33%	CHAN 2009 – Failed to qualify 2010 World Cup – Failed to qualify
Faouzi Benzarti (2)		2009–2010	4	0	3	1	0.00%	AFCON 2010 – Group stage
Bertrand Marchand		2010	6	3	1	2	50.00%	N/A
Sami Trabelsi		2010–2013	32	13	9	10	40.63%	CHAN 2011 – Champions AFCON 2012 – Quarterfinals AFCON 2013 – Group stage
Nabil Maâloul (1)		2013	7	2	3	2	28.57%	CHAN 2014 – Failed to qualify
Ruud Krol		2013	2	0	1	1	0.00%	2014 World Cup – Failed to qualify
Georges Leekens		2014–2015	19	7	8	4	36.84%	AFCON 2015 – Quarterfinals
Henryk Kasperczak (2)		2015–2017	26	12	5	10	46.15%	CHAN 2016 – Quarterfinals AFCON 2017 – Quarterfinals
Nabil Maâloul (2)		2017–2018	13	6	4	3	46.15%	2018 World Cup – Group stage
Faouzi Benzarti (3)		2018	3	3	0	0	100.00%	N/A
Alain Giresse		2018–2019	12	5	4	3	41.67%	AFCON 2019 – Fourth Place
Mondher Kebaier		2019–	31	20	4	7		CHAN 2020 – Qualified but withdrew 2021 Arab Cup – Runners-up AFCON 2021 – Qualified

Statistics[]

Faouzi Benzarti is the only coach to take charge of Tunisia in 3 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%

Coaches by nationality[]

Country	Managers
Tunisia	16
France	6
Poland	3
Serbia
Algeria	1
Belgium
Croatia
Germany
Hungary
Italy
Netherlands
Portugal

References[]