Fahd Ben Khalfallah Refuses African Cup Chance

Mosaique FM caught onto the news from France that Fahd Ben Khalfallah is set to refuse to take part in the African Cup training camp and subsequent Nations Cup because he wants to focus on his club career and the possibility of joining a Ligue 1 team in the winter transfer window. No Tunisian newspaper is talking about this but Mosaique employees must have read the same thing I did on Tunisie-foot. Apparently he met with Roger Lemerre and asked to be guaranteed a spot in the list of 23 that will be traveling to Ghana or else he would leave and rejoin his Ligue 2 club. Some say he even went as far as to ask for a guaranteed place in the starting eleven! Thankfully Roger Lemerre scoffed at the notion and told him to hit the road! For a guy who hasn’t played a single friendly game in the national team colors this kid has some nerve…

If this news turns out to be true (Mosaique FM claims it’s 99.9% certain that he won’t be going to Ghana) then I find Ben Khalfallah’s decision truly laughable. Who does he think he is? Last time we called him up to the Olympic team he played a very mediocre game and by all accounts didn’t convince anyone with his performance. Even if he’s experiencing a good run of form recently with Angers what makes him think he deserves any kinds of guarantees? I guess if you follow his line of thinking, going to Ghana and sitting on the bench won’t do much good to get him a transfer so why not go back and keep impressing until a bigger team picks him up. From a fiscal standpoint the argument makes some sense but he doesn’t sound too patriotic does he? He won’t have made any friends or fans back home thanks to this. Also, suppose he made the team and came on a substitute in some match in the tournament and played well, does he really think European scouts wouldn’t notice? Gone are the days where no one paid attention to this tournament. Not only is it a giant continental event but a plethora of scouts from some of Europe’s top leagues attend the matches hoping to unearth new talent. If they didn’t come, they wouldn’t be doing their job.

If you look at it a different way, this is probably the best bit of news we’ve gotten for a while in regards to the national team. Jaziri, our most patriotic and combative player of recent years, had said that while he doesn’t know much about Ben Khalfallah, he still respects him and his capabilities. However, in the eyes of Jaziri and the rest of the national public, this call up right before the CAN was totally unmerited as Khalfallah didn’t contribute at all in the qualification matches. Therefore, a lot of people will be happy with this turn of events.

What next for our national team? This lead up to the African Cup has been an ongoing soap opera… Hopefully Lemerre turns to Dhaouadi or Mouihbi to reinforce our attack further. Those guys would fly to Ghana in a second… and you wouldn’t need guarantees to convince them. Matter of fact, they would probably walk if that was the only way to secure their place in the team. I didn’t mention Akrout because apparently he’s not in the expanded list of players the FTF sent to the CAF as possible replacements. However, with how things have been going recently I really don’t rule anything out. It’s one surprise to another these days.

In Other News

Seif Ghezel has likely played his last game with Etoile as he admitted in a postgame interview today that he is set to join Neuchatel in Switzerland on a two and half year contract. Apparently the medical in Turkey with Besiktas went well but the Turkish side made it clear they wouldn’t want him playing the African Cup. Guess what he said? Something along the lines of “thanks but no thanks because I want to play for my country.” This sharply contrasts with Ben Khalfallah’s attitude doesn’t it? While I would have preferred to see him in Besiktas because I think their level is better than Neuchatel, I truly respect this player for putting his country first in this situation. Bravo Seif and best of luck in Switzerland! Hopefully you can wow them in defense like Chikhaoui does in attack!

Our U20 Team won a tournament in Tripoli consisting of North African selections. The Participating teams were Algeria, Libya, and Morocco. I don’t know how they had this tournament organized but according to the FTF website, we won our first game against Libya 1-0, lost our second to Morocco 0-2, and then beat Algeria in our last game 3-1. Too bad there has been no real coverage of this tournament available besides this press release. Khaled Ayari, who many of us know from the U17 team that made it to the second round in the World Cup in South Korea, was elected best player of the tournament. Good to see he’s progressing well. I have high hopes for him and his teammates. The future of our national sport depends a lot on how they develop in the coming years. Thanks to Thamer for alerting me to this tournament which might have otherwise passed under the radar.