Sunday, June 4 2006

JOHANNESBURG: Tunisian midfielder Kaies Ghodhbane has been a national team regular for more than a decade and a winner of almost every honour in the African game.

The occasional captain of the Tunisian side now plays in Turkey but at 30 is still a key member of Roger Lemerre's squad.

A veteran of 88 internationals, Ghodhbane has played at six African Nations Cup finals, winning the 2004 edition and gaining a runners-up medal in 1996.

At Etoile Sahel, he won the African Cup Winners' Cup in 1997, the African Super Cup the next year and scored the key goal as his club overcame Wydad Casablanca of Morocco to win the Confederation of African Football (CAF) Cup in 1999.

Ghodhbane was named the Arab “Footballer of the Year” the same year.

He also won the Tunisian league and cup with the club from Sousse, whom he joined aged 18 from SC Moknine.

The trip to Germany will mark a third successive World Cup finals for the midfielder and Ghodhbane concedes it will be his last.

"It is the crowning of my sporting career and the fruit of hard work both on and off the field," he said.

His club career has taken him from Tunisia to Turkey via the United Arab Emirates.

This February, after returning from the Nations Cup finals in Egypt, he moved from Samsunspor to Konyaspor, where his busy midfield style has made him one of the better performers in this campaign.

In the Tunisian side he will find heavy competition for places in the middle of the park but vast tournament experience is likely to give him the nod from coach Lemerre.

(REUTERS)