Selim Benachour (Arabic: سليم بن عاشور, Salīm bin ʻĀshūr; born Slim Ben-Achour on 8 September 1981) is a football coach and former professional player who played as a attacking midfielder. He is an assistant coach for the Tunisia national team.
 Benachour playing for Málaga in 2010 | |||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Slim Ben-Achour | ||||||||||||||||
| Date of birth | 8 September 1981 | ||||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Paris, France | ||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.70 m (5 ft 7 in) | ||||||||||||||||
| Position(s) | Attacking midfielder | ||||||||||||||||
| Team information | |||||||||||||||||
Current team | Tunisia (assistant coach) | ||||||||||||||||
| Youth career | |||||||||||||||||
| 1995-1998 | INF Clairefontaine[1] | ||||||||||||||||
| 1995–2001 | Paris Saint-Germain | ||||||||||||||||
| Senior career* | |||||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) | ||||||||||||||
| 2001–2005 | Paris Saint-Germain | 28 | (1) | ||||||||||||||
| 2001-2002 | → Martigues (loan) | 28 | (1) | ||||||||||||||
| 2003 | → Troyes (loan) | 9 | (2) | ||||||||||||||
| 2005–2006 | Vitória Guimarães | 25 | (4) | ||||||||||||||
| 2006–2008 | Rubin Kazan | 23 | (3) | ||||||||||||||
| 2008–2009 | Al Qadsia | 25 | (3) | ||||||||||||||
| 2009–2010 | Málaga | 22 | (0) | ||||||||||||||
| 2011–2012 | Marítimo | 33 | (5) | ||||||||||||||
| 2012–2014 | APOEL | 38 | (3) | ||||||||||||||
| 2015 | Mumbai City | 11 | (1) | ||||||||||||||
| 2016–2018 | FC Martigues | 15 | (2) | ||||||||||||||
| Total | 257 | (25) | |||||||||||||||
| International career | |||||||||||||||||
| 2002–2010 | Tunisia | 44 | (2) | ||||||||||||||
| Managerial career | |||||||||||||||||
| 2016–2018 | FC Martigues (youth) | ||||||||||||||||
| 2018 | Club Africain (assistant) | ||||||||||||||||
| 2018–2019 | Foresta Suceava | ||||||||||||||||
| 2020 | Olimpia Grudziądz | ||||||||||||||||
| 2020–2021 | Oldham Athletic (under-18s) | ||||||||||||||||
| 2021–2022 | Oldham Athletic (caretaker) | ||||||||||||||||
| 2022– | Tunisia (assistant) | ||||||||||||||||
Medal record
| |||||||||||||||||
| *Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||||||||||||||||
Born in France, he represented France at youth international level before playing for Tunisia at senior international level.
Club career
editParis Saint-Germain
editBorn and brought up in Paris, Selim Benachour learned to play his trade at the Paris Saint-Germain academy. Benachour began his professional club career with Paris Saint-Germain in 2001 and stayed in the club until 2005.
After his two loan transfers, he went back to PSG after this, playing on and off for them over the next two seasons. Overall he earned 28 caps for his childhood club, scoring one goal.
With PSG, he appeared in 28 league matches and scored a goal,[2] alongside winning the Coupe de France in 2004.[3]
Out on loan from PSG
editHe was given twice on loan from Paris Saint-Germain to Martigues in 2001-2002 and Troyes in 2003. He was sent to French Division 2 club Martigues on a season long loan spell. He played regularly for the Martigues first team, scoring one goal in 28 appearances. Next season he was sent on loan to Ligue 2 side ES Troyes AC, who had just narrowly avoided bankruptcy and were just trying to survive for the time being. Benachour had trouble getting into their team, making 9 appearances over the season, scoring twice.[4]
Vitoria
editIn 2005, he left France and moved to Portugal, signing with Vitória Guimarães, where he enjoyed one successful season at the club.
Rubin Kazan
editThe next season, he signed a contract with the Russian side Rubin Kazan, where he played for two seasons and appeared in 23 league matches, scoring 3 goals. He was in Kazan's 2006 La Manga Cup winning squad.
Al Qadsia
editAfter two seasons with Kazan, he moved to Kuwait and signed for Kuwaiti Premier League side Al Qadsia and played there until 2009. With Qadsia, he won the 2008–09 Kuwaiti Premier League.
Malaga
editIn 2009, he signed with the Spanish La Liga side Málaga. On 13 September 2010 he was not registered to play in La Liga and was released by the club, with one year still left on his contract.[5]
Maritimo
editOn 21 January 2011, he returned to Portugal and signed a contract with the Marítimo until the end of the 2011–2012 season.[6]
APOEL
editOn 16 June 2012, Benachour signed a two-year contract with the Cypriot club APOEL.[7] On 23 August 2012, he scored his first goal with APOEL in a Europa League play-off round match against Neftchi Baku in Dalga Arena, equalising the score in the 83rd minute, in a match which ended with 1–1 draw.[8] He became a champion with APOEL after helping his club to win the 2012–13 Cypriot First Division. During the 2013–14 season, he appeared in two 2013–14 UEFA Europa League group stage matches for APOEL and won all the titles in Cyprus, the Cypriot League,[9][10] the Cypriot Cup[11][12] and the Cypriot Super Cup.[13][14]
Mumbai City
editOn 28 July 2015, he signed for Indian Super League club Mumbai City FC managed by his former teammate Nicolas Anelka.[15][16][17] With Mumbai, he appeared in 11 matches with 3 assists and 1 goal,[18] as the club finished 6th in the 2015 Indian Super League season.
Martigues
editAfter the end of his stint with Mumbai, he came back to France in 2016 and signed with Championnat National 2 side FC Martigues. From 2016 to 2018, he appeared in 15 league matches with Martigues, scoring 2 goals.
International career
editBenachour played for France national teams at youth level from under-15 to under-20. In June 2001, after playing the Toulon Tournament with Raymond Domenech as a coach, he refused to play the under-20 World Cup for France.[19]
He made his international debut on 11 January 2002 against Cameroon in a friendly match which ended as their 1-0 defeat.[20] Between 2002 and 2010, he earned 44 caps for Tunisia and scored 2 goals.
He was widely considered one of Tunisia's best players, an elegant playmaker with range of passing and great vision, and played for Tunisia's national squad at the 2002 World Cup. However, he was not included in the squad for the 2006 World Cup in Germany, in which Tunisia were knocked out in the first round. He was part of the national squad that emerged as the champions of the 2004 African Cup of Nations, defeating Morocco.[21][22]
Managerial career
editOverall, he made over 250 appearances at senior level throughout his career before retiring and in 2016, Benachour became the head coach at Martigues FC U17, where he won the Provincial Cup and then came runners-up in the league before moving up to the U19 team. Later he joined Foresta Suceava in Romania as manager and guided the club to a fifth-place finish.[23]
He then occupied the post of technical director as well as briefly the head coach role at Olimpia Grudziądz in Poland's top division.
Moving to England, the UEFA A licence holder Benachour took up the position of under-18s manager at Oldham Athletic in September 2020.[24]
He became caretaker first team head coach of Oldham Athletic on 24 November 2021, following the departure of Keith Curle.
Career statistics
editInternational goals
edit| No. | Date | Venue | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | 1 February 2004 | Stade Olympique de Radès, Radès |  Guinea |
1–0 |
1–1 |
2004 African Nations Cup |
| 2. | 26 January 2006 | Stade de l'Amitié, Harras El-Hedoud Stadium, Alexandria |  South Africa |
2–0 |
2–0 |
2006 African Nations Cup |
Managerial statistics
edit- As of 22 January 2022
| Team | From | To | Record | Ref. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| P | W | D | L | Win % | ||||
| Foresta Suceava | 15 August 2018 | 8 April 2019 | 20 | 8 | 6 | 6 | 40.0 | [27] |
| Olimpia Grudziądz | 1 July 2020 | 31 July 2020 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 0.0 | [28] |
| Oldham Athletic | 24 November 2021 | 22 January 2022 | 9 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 11.1 | [29] |
| Total | 35 | 9 | 11 | 15 | 25.7 | |||
Honours
editCountry
editTunisia under-21
Tunisia
Club
editParis Saint-Germain
Qadsia
APOEL
Personal life
editBenachour was born in Paris, France, and is multilingual. He speaks fluent French, English, Spanish and Portuguese.
References
edit- ^ Lefèvre, Florian (31 December 2016). "Benachour : " C'était un déchirement de ne pas réussir à Paris "" [Benachour: "It was tearing for not succeeding in Paris"]. sofoot.com (in French). Retrieved 19 July 2018.
- ^ "BENACHOUR : " C'ÉTAIT UN DÉCHIREMENT DE NE PAS RÉUSSIR À PARIS "". sofoot.com. Retrieved 24 March 2021.
- ^ Report on French federation site (PSG 1 – 0 Châteauroux) fff.fr. Retrieved 24 March 2021
- ^ "Selim Benachour, Tunisian football hero joins Mumbai City". the-fan-garage.com. 28 July 2015. Retrieved 24 March 2021.
- ^ El Málaga Club de Fútbol acuerda con Selim Benachour su desvinculación Archived 16 September 2010 at the Wayback Machine; Málagacf.com, 13.9-2010 (in Spanish)
- ^ Benachour assina até ao final da época 2011/2012; csmartimo.pt, 21.1–2011 (in Portuguese)
- ^ "Προκαταρκτική Συμφωνία με Selim Benachour" (in Greek). APOEL FC. Retrieved 16 June 2012.
- ^ "Neftçi 1–1 APOEL". UEFA. Retrieved 23 August 2012.
- ^ "Sheridan strike hands APOEL Cypriot title". UEFA. 31 May 2014. Retrieved 31 May 2014.
- ^ "AEL vs. APOEL 0-1". Soccerway. 31 May 2014. Retrieved 31 May 2014.
- ^ ΕΡΜΗΣ ΑΡΑΔΙΠΠΟΥ 0-2 ΑΠΟΕΛ (in Greek). APOEL FC. 21 May 2014. Retrieved 21 May 2014.
- ^ "APOEL vs. Ermis 2-0". Soccerway. 21 May 2014. Retrieved 21 May 2014.
- ^ "APOEL FC 1-0 APOLLON". APOEL FC. 17 August 2013. Retrieved 17 August 2013.
- ^ "APOEL vs. Apollon 1-0". Soccerway. 17 August 2013. Retrieved 17 August 2013.
- ^ "Benachour joins former team-mate Anelka at Mumbai City". Goal. Retrieved 28 July 2015.
- ^ "ISL: Mumbai City FC sign Tunisia's Selim Benachour". India Today. Retrieved 24 March 2021.
- ^ "Mumbai City Squad". indiansuperleague.com. Retrieved 24 March 2021.
- ^ Selim Benachour with Mumbai City in the Indian Super League indiansuperleague.com. Retrieved 24 March 2021
- ^ Opoczynski, David (7 June 2001). "Benachour : " Je suis soulagé "". leparisien.fr (in French). Retrieved 17 July 2023.
- ^ Selim Benachour with Tunisia national football team: games and statistics National-Football-Teams. Retrieved 24 March 2021
- ^ UEFA.com (14 February 2004). "Tunisia delight in African triumph | Inside UEFA". UEFA.com. Retrieved 24 March 2021.
- ^ "Classement buteurs CAN 2004 Coupe d'afrique des nations 2004 informations, résultats, photos..." coupedafrique.winoo.com. Retrieved 15 March 2021.
- ^ "Benachour Becomes New Youth Team Manager". oldhamathletic.co.uk. Retrieved 24 March 2021.
- ^ Benachour Becomes New Youth Team Manager
- ^ "African Nations Cup 2004". RSSSF. Retrieved 15 March 2021.
- ^ "African Nations Cup 2006". RSSSF. Retrieved 24 March 2021.
- ^ "Romania - ACS Foresta Suceava - Results, fixtures, squad, statistics, photos, videos and news - Soccerway".
- ^ "Poland - GKS Olimpia Grudziądz - Results, fixtures, squad, statistics, photos, videos and news - Soccerway".
- ^ "Selim Benachour - Soccerbase".
- ^ "Tunisia win Cup of Nations". BBC Sport. 14 February 2004. Retrieved 14 March 2011.
- ^ "Résultat et résumé Paris-SG – Châteauroux, Coupe de France, Finale, Samedi 29 Mai 2004". lequipe.fr. Retrieved 26 February 2021.
External links
edit- APOEL official profile
- Selim Benachour at National-Football-Teams.com
- Selim Benachour at Soccerway
- Interview-biography (in Russian)