Bundesliga at AFCON | Tunisia Preview | OneFootball

Our next Get German Football News “Bundesliga at AFCON” preview section examines Tunisia. Just like two years ago, a country well represented within the Bundesrepublik is taking three German professional representatives with it. Eintracht Frankfurt’s Ellyes Skhiri returns for his third consecutive AFCON. Former Bundesliga player Aïssa Laïdouni (Union Berlin) and 2. Bundesliga professional Oussama Haddadi (SpVgg Greuther Fürth) are still getting call ups, but aren’t on the final squad In their place, Germans are pleased to welcome homegrown hero Elias Saad and his (temporary) Augsburg teammate Ismaël Gharbi.

Tunisia: “The Eagles of Carthage”

Before going further in depth on the Carthaginians, it’s worth expending a few words on the other three teams in this group. Firstly, there’s been a bit of a bombshell. The Nigerian “Super Eagles” – much to our collective chagrin – don’t have any German footballing representation. The injury problems affecting Nathan Tella (Bayer Leverkusen) and Felix Agu (Werder Bremen) ultimately prevented them from partaking. In other sad developments, popular former German youth international Jordan Torunarigha never got into form for Hamburger SV and Hoffenheim’s Kevin Akpoguma slipped back into obscurity.

For those inclined to keep track, that’s four potential German top flight footballers who could have been representing Nigeria in this competition. We haven’t even gotten to striker Victor Boniface yet, who regrettably missed out on a chance to participate in the 2023 AFCON due to a heartbreaking late injury and now seems to have completely lost his touch and portions of his mind as well. Nigeria’s lack of Bundesliga players constitutes a big heartbreaker for German Africa football lovers. Even Taiwo Awoniyi didn’t make the final cut! Damn. We get to check in with former Augsburg loanee Frank ‘the tank’ Onyeka and that’s it.

Regarding the remaining two countries, the Ugandans make for a decent underdog story and some German neutrals will be looking in on them to see what they can manage in their first AFCON since 2019. That’s nothing compared to the number of Germans who will be actively supporting Tanzania. The “Taifa Stars” maintain a lot of active support in Germany due to some of the historic links and the fact that they are the biggest underdog story of all time. Now appearing at AFCON for the fourth time, Tanzania are still awaiting their first win at the tournament. This could be the story of the whole affair.

Notes on Tunisian Football in Germany

It’s always been huge. Tunisian emigration to the Bundesrepublik has always been heavy due to the proximity factor. Tunisian internationals such as Adel Sellemi, Mehdi Ben Slimane, and Zoubeir Baya (all of Freiburg) were already regular Bundesliga fixtures in the 1990s. Karim Haggui, Sami Allagui, and Änis Ben-Hatira were laying the groundwork for their long and prolific German footballing careers by the early part of the next decade.

Now that Tunisian settlement in Germany has become a generational thing, we’ve been gifted a chance to root for German-born Tunisian internationals like Mohamed Dräger (Freiburg) and Marc Latmi (Köln). The latest addition to this cohort (who narrowly missed out on a chance to participate in the 2023 AFCON) is also now fully onboard. Germans are ecstatic at the chance to watch Hamburg-born Elias Saad compete in red at the continental showpiece.

Bundesliga AFCON Representatives, Tunisia

Elias Saad, FC Augsburg

Before breaking in at St. Pauli, Saad was playing at the semi-pro level across the Schleswig-Holstein border at “technical city rivals” Eintracht Noerstedt well into his 20s. Saad didn’t have the pedigree of formal academy training. He played weekend “hobby football” at a series of even smaller clubs prior to that. There was nevertheless always some hope for this “Kiez-kind” as he was good enough at the indoor game to play Futsal at the Bundesliga level. He even ended up representing the German national Futsal team during a five-month period in 2019.

In January 2023, Saad made the leap from the fourth division to the 2. Bundesliga at the age of 23 on a paltry €100,000 transfer. He scored in just his second appearance off the bench for Fabian Hürzeler’s side and soon had a starting role nailed down. After finishing the 2022/23 campaign as a regular, he stormed out of the gate the next year with five goals in 20 appearances across all comps by the winter break. Tunisia already wanted him by that point, but Saad chose to focus on the incredible opportunity accorded him. Saad continued to shine and helped the Kiezkicker obtain promotion.

The injury that forced him to miss six months of the 2024/25 Bundesliga campaign halted his momentum in the top flight. Two weeks after he bagged a brace and added an assist in a 0-3 away win over Freiburg, a ligament tear totally screwed up Saad’s year. He would only score one more goal last spring and had to bow out with another muscle injury early. The former complete unknown still maintained a €4m estimated market value and Augsburg considered him worth a €2m purchase this past offseason.

Another pre-season injury and horrendous squad management from former FCA trainer Sandro Wagner has hampered his start with the Fuggerstädter, but this could be precisely what Saad needs. He’s already struck thrice for country during the three international breaks this year and could play a pivotal role on a very strong team that aims to capture its first continental title (and only second overall) since 2004. One hopes Saad can return to Bavaria prepared to record his first scorer point for his new club.

Ismaël Gharbi, FC Augsburg

There’s been next to nothing to be seen from the highly-touted €7.5m late summer loan signing. Gharbi has entered as a sub in the league on just four occasions, only logging more than 14 minutes of action on one occasion; the infamous 0-6 loss against RB Leipzig.  The PSG product’s story is almost the inverse of that of Saad’s. Ten plus years under the aegis of one of the world’s most elite academies. Time spent on the pitch with global footballing stars. High profile stations in France and Portugal. Messi comparisons. Lots of time in the spotlight for the 21-year-old.

Gharbi has at least scored his first goal for Tunisia this autumn, helping the case of those who like to compare him to Messi with some solid aerial work in the autumn qualifying fixtures. For whatever reason, things just don’t appear to be clicking at all for Gharbi at his club these days. The former Spanish and French youth international hasn’t even been selected for three of the last five matchday squads by the coaching staff. Like Saad, Gharbi will be hoping to reverse his fortunes here.

Ellyes Skhiri, Eintracht Frankfurt

Whether it’s the knee problems troubling him at the beginning of the season, the fact that SGE head coach Dino Toppmöller’s back line if full of fledgling youngsters and tanking veterans, or Skhiri’s own age (30), our subject here simply doesn’t appear to be the player he once was. Now in his seventh season as a Bundesliga professional, Skhiri has never gone the entire first half of the campaign without registering a single scorer point. Something seems off for the former 1. FC Köln star, who doesn’t appear to be clicking in either his old midfield partnership role with Hugo Larsson or as a bolt-lock sweeper.

Apart from his memorable work as a holding six in the crazy ten-goal affair against Borussia Mönchengladbach, Skhiri hasn’t really produced a performance this year that’s stuck in the mind. One can at least say that he’s been “positively inconspicuous”, not delivering a disastrous error-strewn performance either. One certainly hopes for some evidence to the contrary, but it might very well be the case that Skhiri reached his peak with Köln a little over two years ago and has been on an irreversibly declining slope ever since. The 73-times-capped international could be on his way out of Germany soon. 

GGFN | Peter Weis