Overview:
Overall, the Carthage Eagles have only scored 14 goals across their six World Cup appearances since 1978.
Tunisia will be one of the ten nations to represent Africa at the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Canada, Mexico and United States of America.
The North African side will be appearing at the world’s biggest showpiece for the seventh time with their first coming in Argentina in 1978.
They have never made it past the group stages but can they break the jinx this time around? That will be the target when they land in Canada, Mexico and the USA next year.
Ismael Kiyonga looks at the Tunisian side in his series profiling African nations at the Fifa World Cup 2026.
Head coach: Sabri Lamouchi
The French-Tunisian born tactician took over in January from Sami Trabelsi following Tunisia’s exit from the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco.
The 54-year-old former France international is no stranger to guiding a team at the global showpiece, having served as Côte d’Ivoire head coach at Brazil 2014.
How they qualified
Tunisia were flawless in the qualifying campaign conceding no goals at all in 10 matches from Group H that had Equatorial Guinea, Namibia, Malawi, Liberia and Sao Tome & Principe.
First, under head coach Faouzi Benzarti, they won three and drew one of the opening four matches before Sami Trabelsi took over to complete the qualifiers.
Under Trabelsi, Tunisia won all their remaining matches amassing 28 points out of a possible 30 available.
Their qualification was confirmed in September 2025 when Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane struck a dramatic late winner against Equatorial Guinea on Matchday 8.
They scored a record 22 goals with Romdhane finishing as the top scorer with 4 goals.
The Nation’s top scorer at the World Cup
Overall, the Carthage Eagles have only scored 14 goals across their six World Cup appearances since 1978.
Wahbi Khazri leads the goal scoring charts with three, making him the all-time top scorer at the tournament for the Eagles of Carthage.
His goals came at two World Cups he featured in at Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022.
He opened his account against Belgium in Russia and followed it up with another strike leading Tunisia to a 2-1 victory over Panama and got the third goal against France in Qatar where Tunisia beat the defending champions.
History at the World Cup
- Best World Cup result: Group stage
- Last World Cup: Qatar 2022
- First World Cup: Argentina 1978
- World Cup appearances: 7 (1978, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2018, 2022, 2026)
- Overall World Cup record: P18 W3 D5 L10 F14 A26
Group fixtures, venues and kick-off times [EAT]
- June 15: Sweden [Monterrey stadium) 5am
- June 21: Japan [Monterrey stadium) 7am
- June 25: Netherlands [Kansas City stadium) 2am
TUNISIA SQUAD 2026 FIFA World Cup
Goalkeepers
- Aymen Dahmene (CS Sfaxien)
- Sabri Ben Hassan (Étoile du Sahel)
- Abdelmouhib Chamakh (Club Africain)
Defenders
- Montassar Talbi (Lorient)
- Dylan Bronn (Servette FC)
- Omar Rekik (NK Maribor)
- Adem Arous (Kasimpasa)
- Raed Chikhaoui (US Monastirienne)
- Yan Valery (Young Boys)
- Moutaz Neffati (IFK Norrköping)
- Mohamed Amine Ben Hamida (Espérance de Tunis)
- Ali Abdi (Nice)
Midfielders
- Ellyes Skhiri (Frankfurt)
- Rani Khedira (Union Berlin)
- Hadj Mahmoud (Lugano)
- Ismaël Gharbi (Augsburg)
- Hannibal Mejbri (Burnley)
- Anis Ben Slimane (Norwich)
- Mortadha Ben Ouanes (Kasımpaşa)
Forwards
- Sebastian Tounekti (Celtic)
- Elias Saad (Hannover 96)
- Elias Achouri (Copenhagen)
- Khalil Ayari (PSG)
- Rayan Elloumi (Vancouver)
- Hazem Mastouri (Dinamo Makhachkala)
- Firas Chaouat (Club Africain)
