Visit Tunisia: Foot ball Club

The Etoile Sportive du Sahel (ESS) (Arabic: النـجـم الرياضي الساحلي‎, often referred to as Etoile du Sahel, Arabic: النـجـم الساحلي‎) is a sports club from Sousse in the Sahel region of Tunisia, known primarily for its football team. The club also has sections for handball, volleyball, basketball, judo and wrestling. In English the name means Sport (or Athletic) Star of the Sahel.
Étoile is one of the  clubs in the world  to have won all continental club competitions organized by their respective confederation and the only one to have won all African competitions.


The club was founded during a public meeting at the French-Arabic school on Laroussi Zarrouk Street, in Sousse. Chedli Boujemla was elected as the first chairman of the multi-sport club. La Soussienne and La Musulmane ("The Muslim") were rejected as club names in favor of L'Étoile Sportive. Club members eventually settled on L'Étoile Sportive du Sahel to reflect the goal of representing a broader region than Sousse alone. The Protectorate administration officially recognized the club on July 17, 1925. In March 1926, Ali Larbi became chairman of the soccer section of the club, which entered the Fédération Tunisienne de Football.
L'Étoile became the Islamic club in Sousse. Tunisia also had the French Patriote de Sousse club, the Jewish Maccabi club, the Italian La Savoia club and the Maltese Red Star club: Though communitarian football had been banned officially since 1919 in Tunisia.
ESS's first major honour was the Tunisian Ligue Professionnelle 1 title in 1950, but they had to wait 8 years to pick it up again. They won their first Tunisian President Cup in 1959, and completed a league and cup double in 1963.

In 1995 Etoile won their first continental trophy, winning the CAF Cup. 2 years later in 1997 they completed a league and African Cup Winners Cup double, and they continued to impress on the continental stage - they won the African Super Cup in 1998 and the CAF Cup (for the 2nd time) in 1999. But Sahel's problem was that they struggled domestically - a perfect example was when they won the league in 1987 and failed to win it again until 10 years later.


It was exactly the same in 1997. They won the African Cup Winners Cup (for the 2nd time) in 2003, and made it to their 1st ever African Champions League final a year later, but lost to Nigerian outfit Enyimba on penalties. ESS lost in the final of the same competition the following season, being defeated by Egyptian giants Al-Ahly 3-0 over 2 legs. Although, they did have some success that year - winning the Tunisian League Cup for the first time in their history. In 2006 Etoile won the CAF Confederation Cup for the first time, but continued to struggle in the league. But the 2006-2007 season proved to be possibly the greatest season in the club's history - they won the CLP 1 title and the African Champions League title (for the first time). The final of the Champions League that year was a memorable one, as ESS played Al-Ahly in a repeat of the 2005 final. The first leg finished 0-0 in Sousse, and with ESS huge underdogs, they won 3-1 in Egypt to take the trophy.

In Mars 2007 the club particpate at The 2007 FIFA Club World Cup and win his first match against the maxican club Patchuca.