Faouzi Benzarti
Personal information | |||
---|---|---|---|
Full name | Faouzi Benzarti | ||
Date of birth | 3 January 1950 | ||
Place of birth | Monastir, Tunisia | ||
Position(s) | Midfielder | ||
Senior career* | |||
Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
1968–1978 | US Monastir | ||
Managerial career | |||
1979–1982 | US Monastir | ||
1986–1987 |
Étoile du Sahel | ||
1989–1990 | Club Africain | ||
1991–1992 |
Étoile du Sahel | ||
1992–1993 | US Monastir | ||
1993–1994 |
ES Tunis | ||
1994 | Tunisia | ||
1995–1996 |
CS Sfax | ||
1999–2000 | Club Africain | ||
2001 | Sharjah | ||
2002–2003 | Stade Tunisien | ||
2003 |
ES Tunis | ||
2005–2006 | US Monastir | ||
2006–2007 |
Étoile du Sahel | ||
2007 |
ES Tunis | ||
2007–2008 | Libya | ||
2008–2010 |
ES Tunis | ||
2010 | Tunisia | ||
2010–2011 | Tunisia | ||
2011 | Club Africain | ||
2012 |
Étoile du Sahel | ||
2012 | Sharjah | ||
2012 | Ittihad Kalba | ||
2013–2014 | Raja CA | ||
2014–2017 |
Étoile du Sahel | ||
2017 |
ES Tunis | ||
2018 | Wydad AC | ||
2018 | Tunisia | ||
2018–2019 | Wydad AC | ||
2019 |
Étoile du Sahel | ||
2019–2020 | Libya | ||
2020 | CS Sfaxien | ||
2020–2021 | Wydad AC | ||
2021–2022 | US Monastir | ||
2022 |
Al Ahly Benghazi | ||
2022 | Raja CA | ||
2022–2023 | MC Alger | ||
2023 |
Étoile du Sahel | ||
2023– | Wydad AC | ||
*Club domestic league appearances and goals |
Faouzi Benzarti (
Benzarti managed clubs in Tunisia, Morocco, Oman and United Arab Emirates. The most Tunisian clubs have won titles with him are
Early life and education
Faouzi Benzarti was born on 3 January 1950 in the city of Monastir, central coast of Tunisia, into a sports family. He attended primary and secondary education in Monastir, then joined the Higher Institute of Sports of Tunis and graduated from it in 1975. He worked as a physical education teacher at many Tunisian institutes from 1975 to 1977, and after obtaining a football coach certificate he decided to devote himself entirely to training.
Playing career
Prior to his coaching career, Benzerti developed his career as an
Coaching career
Beginning & success with Tunisian clubs (1979–1994)
He began his career at
Tunisian team & first experience outside Tunisia (1994–2002)
In March 1994, he was appointed as Tunisia national football team coach in the second match of 1994 African Cup of Nations hosted by Tunisia after the dismissal of Youssef Zouaoui who failed in the opening match against Mali. He also signed with CS Sfaxien in June 1996 but soon left before the season to play his first overseas experience at the head of the Emirati Club Al-Shaab CSC. It was not a successful experience as the team finished in seventh place in 1998–99 UAE Football League. Faouzi Benzarti returned to the Club Africain in 1999 and reached the final of the 1999 African Cup Winners' Cup. He made a brief pass as coach of Stade Tunisien in 2001 with unconvincing results.
Great success with Étoile and Espérance (2003–2007)
He was appointed as coach of Espérance de Tunis in 2003 and won the 2002–03 Tunisian Ligue Professionnelle 1. He signed with Étoile du Sahel in April 2006 and achieved impressive results in winning the 2006–07 Tunisian Ligue Professionnelle 1, 2006 CAF Confederation Cup and obtaining the silver medal in the 2006 CAF Super Cup. After his involvement with Étoile du Sahel in 2006, Benzarti transferred to Espérance de Tunis in June 2007, but left soon after to manage the national team of Libya.
Libyan National Team (2007–2009)
On 11 July 2007, he became the new head coach of the Libyan team. He led the team in their last match of
.After a series of friendly matches against Egypt, Zambia and Saudi Arabia, he began the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification with a 0–3 defeat by Ghana. But then he made a positive streak and was close to qualifying for the third round of qualification before being defeated against Gabon in the last game. Benzarti remained in charge of the Libyan side after a good performance in World Cup qualifiers but returned to Tunisia in March 2009 to coach Espérance.
Return to Espérance & temporary coaching of Tunisia (2009–2010)
After returning to Esperance he won the Tunisian League twice in 2009 and 2010 becoming the most winning coach of Tunisian Leagues, he won also the Arab Champions League for the same year and reached the final of the 2010 CAF Champions League but was defeated by TP Mazembe. Following the failure of the national team, under the leadership of
Experiences in the Persian Gulf & weak results (2010–2013)
On 17 May 2011, Benzarti signed a two-year contract with
On 26 March 2012, Faouzi Benzarti replaced Bernd Krauss as Étoile coach, The Tunisian journeyman coach went back to Sousse for a fourth time in his trophy filled career as German Bernd Krauss returned to his post of youth technical director.
He then did a short experience in the Persian Gulf region with Omani club Al-Shaab and Emirati club Sharjah FC with little achievements.
Outstanding results with Raja (2013–2014)
At the end of 2013, Benzarti joined the
Other success with Étoile and Espérance (2014–2017)
On 12 August 2014, he took charge of Étoile du Sahel after the dismissal of
In this period he won the Tunisian League for the second time in a row but with two different teams. During the same period, Espérance managed to win the 2017 Arab Club Championship title.
In December 2017, he decided to leave his position as coach of Espérance Sportive de Tunis.[6] Benzarti said he would not coach Tunisian clubs in the future after the elimination of Espérance from the quarter-final of 2017 CAF Champions League against Al Ahly.
Brilliance with Wydad & third term with Tunisia (2018–2019)
The African Champion,
On 28 July 2018, the
However, he was dismissed in October after three wins and qualifying for 2019 Africa Cup of Nations after disagreement with the president of the Tunisian Football Federation Wadie Jary for refusing his interferences in the trainings.[10]
In November 2018, he signed a new contract for a season and a half with the Moroccan club of Wydad Casablanca.[11] He was able to achieve good results after winning the
Otherwise, He went through a short experience with Étoile du Sahel in late 2019 replacing Roger Lemerre, but it did not last long due to the eliminations from the Arab championship, which the team was holders in addition to the loss of the title of the Tunisian Cup.[12]
Second tenure with Libya and Wydad (2019–2021)
On 25 October 2019, Benzarti was appointed as coach of Libya on a six-month renewable contract,[13] following the first spell between 2007 and 2009.[14] Less than a month after taking office, the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualification began and opened with a match against his country, where they were beaten 4–1 in Radès. four days later, he played his second match against Tanzania and won 2–1. Then the matches were postponed after the COVID-19 pandemic, and he left his post in May 2020.
He had a short experience with
Short experiences in the Maghreb (2021–)
After that, Benzarti entered into short experiences for some months in Tunisia or in various other teams from the
On 7 July 2022, the president of
On 25 September 2022, Benzarti was appointed as coach of MC Alger.[16]
In 2023, he returned to Tunisia and succeeded in winning the league with
Personal life
Benzarti is married and has children. His son is his agent who negotiates with teams that want to hire him. He is the older brother of Lotfi Benzarti who is one of the most important Tunisian coaches. His sister is married to the popular Tunisian actor Sofiene Chaari.
Politically, he led an independent list, called "Audacity and Ambition", for the
Managerial statistics
- As of match played 12 March 2024
Team | From | To | Record | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
G | W | D | L | Win % | |||
Étoile du Sahel
|
13 April 2006 | 30 May 2007 | 33 | 20 | 9 | 4 | 60.61 |
Libya | 11 July 2007 | 8 March 2009 | 18 | 8 | 4 | 6 | 44.44 |
Espérance de Tunis
|
8 March 2009 | 1 December 2010 | 65 | 42 | 13 | 10 | 64.62 |
Tunisia | 23 November 2009 | 23 January 2010 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0.00 |
Sharjah FC | 9 June 2012 | 19 November 2012 | 10 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 70.00 |
Raja CA | 5 December 2013 | 29 May 2014 | 27 | 18 | 3 | 6 | 66.67 |
Étoile du Sahel | 12 August 2014 | 3 January 2017 | 115 | 74 | 24 | 17 | 64.35 |
Espérance de Tunis | 3 January 2017 | 24 December 2017 | 44 | 29 | 12 | 3 | 65.91 |
Wydad Casablanca
|
19 January 2018 | 28 July 2018 | 23 | 14 | 7 | 2 | 60.87 |
Tunisia | 28 July 2018 | 20 October 2018 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 100.00 |
Wydad Casablanca | 27 November 2018 | 5 July 2019 | 37 | 20 | 10 | 7 | 54.05 |
Étoile du Sahel | 5 July 2019 | 25 September 2019 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 14.29 |
Libya | 24 October 2019 | 22 May 2020 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 50.00 |
CS Sfaxien | 28 August 2020 | 13 November 2020 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 42.86 |
Wydad Casablanca | 15 November 2020 | 2 August 2021 | 46 | 29 | 11 | 6 | 63.04 |
US Monastir | 4 October 2021 | 26 June 2022 | 17 | 8 | 5 | 4 | 47.06 |
Al-Ahly SC | 29 June 2022 | 27 July 2022 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 20.00 |
Raja CA | 1 August 2022 | 21 September 2022 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0.00 |
MC Alger | 25 September 2022 | 15 February 2023 | 14 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 42.86 |
Étoile du Sahel | 28 February 2023 | 25 July 2023 | 14 | 9 | 4 | 1 | 64.29 |
Wydad Casablanca | 15 December 2023 | 15 March 2023 | 16 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 31.25 |
Total | 513 | 299 | 125 | 89 | 58.28 |
Honours
Managerial honours :
- Tunisian League:
- Tunisian Cup:
- Winners : 2014–15
- Tunisian Super Cup:
- Winners : 1987, 1994
- Moroccan League:
- CAF Champions League:
- CAF Super Cup:
- CAF Confederation Cup:
- Arab Club Champions Cup:
- FIFA Club World Cup:
- Finalist : 2013
Individual honours :
- Commander of the National Order of Merit of Tunisia
- Officer of the Order of Civil Merit of Morocco[17]
- Ninth best African coach of all time according to the Confederation of African Football[18]
- Award of "Best African Coach" from the Nigeria Football Federation[19]
References
- ^ "Ce qu'il faut savoir sur Faouzi Benzarti, le nouveau sélectionneur". 7 August 2018.
- ^ "Faouzi Benzarti returns as Club Africain coach". goal.com. 17 May 2011.
- ^ "Le Raja Casablanca engage le coach tunisien Faouzi Benzarti". 5 December 2013.
- ^ "Sa Majesté le Roi Mohammed VI offre une réception en l'honneur des membres de l'équipe de football du Raja Club Athletic". 25 December 2013.
- ^ "Faouzi Benzarti quitte l'Etoile du Sahel". 27 December 2016.
- ^ "Meddeb accepte la démission de Benzarti". 24 December 2017.
- ^ "Faouzi Benzarti, nouvel entraîneur du WA Casablanca". 24 January 2018.
- ^ "Wydad Casablanca are crowned Caf Super Cup champions". BBC Sport. 24 February 2018.
- ^ "Faouzi Benzarti returns as Tunisia's new national coach". BBC Sport. 20 July 2018.
- ^ "Tunisia sack head coach Faouzi Benzarti just days after Afcon qualification". BBC Sport. 20 October 2018.
- ^ "Faouzi Benzarti revient officiellement au WAC". 27 November 2018.
- ^ "Etoile sportive du Sahel : Faouzi Benzarti succède à Roger Lemerre". 5 July 2019.
- ^ "Libya reappoint Faouzi Benzarti as coach". BBC Sport.
- ^ "Libya FA appoint Faouzi Benzarti as new national team head coach". kingfut.com. 25 October 2019.
- ^ "Le Raja Casablanca officialise l'arrivée de l'entraîneur Faouzi Benzarti". Hespress Français (in French). 7 July 2022. Retrieved 8 July 2022.
- ^ "MCA : Faouzi Benzarti, nouveau coach". 25 September 2022.
- ^ "Faouzi Benzarti honoré par le roi du Maroc Mohamed VI". 28 December 2013.
- ^ "Faouzi Benzarti 9ème meilleur entraîneur africain de tous les temps". 1 June 2017.
- ^ "Faouzi Benzarti meilleur entraîneur africain selon les Nigérians". 2 February 2019.