New Delhi: Hatem Trabelsi is described as his team’s star man.
So effective and adventurous is Hatem Trabelsi on the right of Tunisia’s defence that he more than justifies that tag.
It will surprise no one who has seen Trabelsi’s strutting style that his football life started as a midfield player at Tunisia’s Club Sportif Sfaxien, with whom he spent the first four years of his professional career.
It was later in this spell that it was decided that Trabelsi should drop back into defence, and the switch proved a masterstroke, so much so that before long the player had a host of European clubs squabbling over his signature.
Dutch giants Ajax eventually won out in July 2001 and Trabelsi made his debut just weeks later in inauspicious circumstances as Ajax crashed to a 3-1 home defeat at the hands of Celtic in the UEFA Champions League.
The Amsterdam side bounced back, however, to win a domestic league and Cup double, with Trabelsi an increasingly influential figure.
For Tunisia, Trabelsi has been a near-permanent fixture in the national side since making his debut against Georgia on 2 May 1998 and, at the age of just 21, was included in the squad for that summer’s FIFA World Cup, where he started his country’s final Group G match against England.
By the time of the next FIFA World Cup, he was already established among their most dependable performers, and completed all three matches in the group section of a frustrating tournament for Tunisia, who failed to win a single game and returned home having scored just once.
Fortunately, much better was to follow two years later, with Trabelsi and his cohorts lifting the CAF African Cup of Nations after a dazzling campaign in front of their own fans.
Germany 2006, the 29-year-old’s third FIFA World Cup finals, will now offer him the perfect opportunity to cement his reputation as one of Africa’s foremost defenders and most accomplished all-round players.
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