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Ben Saada Graduates to Ligue 1

June 18th, 2008 | By: Rami | 8 Comments »

ChaoukiGoal That’s right, Chaouki Ben Saada has secured a transfer from his hometown club of Bastia to OGC Nice where he will join compatriot Alaeddine Yahia. The 23 year old is finally in Ligue 1 after years of chasing promotion.

He’s done everything he could for his childhood team and will be remembered fondly by their fans but it’s fair to say that a player of his ability deserved better competition and more exposure.

As we’ve noted before, Chaouki has been steadily raising his level of play over the years. This has been most evident in his latest outings with the Carthage Eagles. He was one of our most dangerous players in the African Cup and is continuing to impress in national team action, showing off some clinical finishing against Seychelles two weeks ago.

These assured performances augur well for a player who was unfairly criticized in some quarters for not being as effective for country as he was for club. I say unfairly because he previously got little to no playing time in important matches (a mere 11 minutes played at the 2006 World Cup).

Now he’s off to Nice where he should get a legitimate chance to assert himself in their midfield. He will be under the guidance of Frederic Antonetti, a no nonsense coach with very close ties to Bastia. The roster situation and Antonetti’s familiarity with Chaouki made this a natural fit. Now it’s up to our international to continue his progress under the brighter lights of Ligue 1. Given his latest showings, we have every reason to be positive about this move…

Favorite Ben Saada Moment So Far

Remember when we went down 2-0 against Cameroon in the quarter finals? It was Chaouki who brought us back into the match with this brilliant lefty free kick. He nearly scored the equalizer moments later but was denied by an incredible save from Kameni. We know how this ended but we don’t forget the effort put forth by Chaouki and his teammates in what was almost certainly the match of the tournament. Keep them coming young man!

Tags: Bastia, Ben Saada, Ben Saada Nice, Chaouki Ben Saada, Group H, OGC Nice, Tunisia Football

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Comments

By stever | June 18th, 2008 at 6:29 pm

sucks when young guns leave their hometown club but it usually pays off for the national team. congrats to the kid. is he the guy you harass me about all the time?

Still waiting on the announcement for that US v. Tunisia friendly.

By Rami | June 18th, 2008 at 6:42 pm

Hahaha, nah this is another kid. I harass you about Yassine Chikhaoui. I can see the confusion though (Chaouki, Chikhaoui, Chermiti… we get lots of “Ch’s” in the team)

I’m waiting on that friendly too. Preferably one that takes place in Washington DC. So I can finally go and cheer on my boys. Last time I saw them was last summer in a game against Kenya (1-0 win). Too long ago if you ask me.

By Achraf | June 18th, 2008 at 8:38 pm

Wow! If that match does happen for Tunisia vs USA, I will be the first to get my tickets. I know a lot of tunisians here in DC, VA, AND MD. I want to say congradulations to ben saada, he will get even better playing in Ligue 1.

Posted from United States

By Skarabech | June 19th, 2008 at 5:53 am

If Tunisia will play against Usa, will they play in the US?

Posted from Sweden

By Rami | June 19th, 2008 at 6:51 am

Sorry for the confusion but there’s no game scheduled… Steve was just saying that he hopes a match between our two countries happen in the future because he’s a USA Soccer fan and we chat about both our teams a lot. So if a match ever did take place we would really get into it.

If a game did happen between them though I would be really happy about it. Right now I’m focused on qualifying but one friendly that IS scheduled is in November and it’s against none other than France. Can’t wait for that!

By Rami | June 19th, 2008 at 7:05 am

Oops, I said November for the France Friendly but I meant October.

By Skarabech | June 19th, 2008 at 8:36 am

Tunisia is going to play on Saturda, right?. I hope TV7 sends the match against Burundi.

Posted from Sweden

By Rami | June 19th, 2008 at 11:39 am

I’ve been looking all over for the Burundi highlights from Bujumbura but they’re nowhere to be found. I wanted to see how we played because we missed a lot of chances… The reason it wasn’t shown in the first place was because the Nigerian agency that was meant to install the necessary equipment did everything but find a power source! Professionalism at its highest. There’s a lot of coordination involved that we don’t even know about but obviously someone messed up along the way.

We won’t have this problem at Rades and the game is scheduled to be shown. I’ll talk more about this in the match preview…

Posted from United States

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