Tunisia World Cup 2026 squad: Sabri Lamouchi's final selection

Tunisia World Cup 2026 squad: Tunisia's players pose ahead an international friendly — Tunisia line up before playing Brazil (Image credit: FRANCK FIFE/AFP via Getty Images)

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Squad
Mood
Fixtures and results
Manager
Star player
Best XI

The Tunisia World Cup 2026 squad is the third that the nation have sent to the competition in a row.

World Cup 2026 will be the Eagles of Carthage's seventh tournament – and though they have one of the lesser-known squads at the tournament and won't be among the World Cup favourites, there is certainly hope for making history this time around… but the last year has not been without its ups and downs.

For a start, this was a defensively stringent team under Sami Trabelsi, who returned for a second stint as manager and led this side to become the first in history to qualify for the World Cup without conceding a single goal.

But then came AFCON earlier this year and a Round of 16 exit to Mali: 1998 hero Trabelsi was sacked, and in came former Rennes, Nottingham Forest and Cardiff boss, Sabri Lamouchi, who will be hoping for one hell of a new manager bounce across the Atlantic.

Tunisia will be based in Mexico for their first two fixtures against Sweden and Japan, before travelling to Missouri to face group favourites, the Netherlands, knowing that just three points could be enough to secure passage into a first-ever knockout round.

Though there aren't many standout superstars, there several solid players across this 26-man selection: Ellyes Skhiri of Eintracht Frankfurt leads the group in midfield alongside Anis Ben Slimane and Hannibal Mejbri, two experienced faces in English football.

Four 30-somethings with 377 caps between them won't be in North America, however: Ferjani Sassi, Yassine Meriah, Ali Maaloul and Naim Sliti haven't been named in this squad, despite going to the Africa Cup of Nations earlier this year, with Sliti having retired.

Squad

The Mood

“We have to be honest with ourselves and admit we are far from where we need to be.”

That’s what Hannibal Mejbri told Tunisian press on January 3 after an embarrassing defeat in the Africa Cup of Nations’ last 16. The Eagles of Carthage appeared toothless against a Mali side playing with 10 for most of the match, and lost on penalties.

Mejbri’s grim verdict reflects deeper structural problems that breed pessimism amongst Tunisian fans: five coaching changes in two years, no modern football infrastructure, and a federation that spent most of qualifying as a normalisation committee due to government interference.

Tunisia World Cup 2026 squad: The final selection

GK: Aymen Dahmen (CS Sfaxien)
GK: Sabri Ben Hessen (Etoile du Sahel)
GK: Mouhib Chamakh (Club Africain)
DF: Montassar Talbi (Lorient)
DF: Dylan Bronn (Servette)
DF: Ali Abdi (Nice)
DF: Yan Valery (Young Boys)
DF: Mohamed Amine Ben Hamida (Esperance de Tunis)
DF: Moutaz Neffati (IFK Norrkoping)
DF: Omar Rekik (Maribor)
DF: Adem Arous (Kasimpasa)
DF: Raed Chikhaoui (US Monastir)
MF: Ellyes Skhiri (Eintracht Frankfurt)
MF: Hannibal Mejbri (Burnley)
MF: Anis Ben Slimane (Norwich City)
MF: Mortadha Ben Ouanes (Kasimpasa)
MF: Ismael Gharbi (FC Augsburg)
MF: Hadj Mahmoud (Lugano)
MF: Rani Khedira (Union Berlin)
FW: Elias Achouri (Copenhagen)
FW: Firas Chaouat (Club Africain)
FW: Hazem Mastouri (Dynamo Makhachkala)
FW: Elias Saad (Hannover 96)
FW: Sebastian Tounekti (Celtic)
FW: Khalil Ayari (Paris Saint-Germain)
FW: Rayan Elloumi (Vancouver Whitecaps)

Fixtures and results

Fixtures

June 14, 2026: Sweden vs Tunisia, Estadio BBVA, Guadalupe, Mexico
June 20, 2026: Tunisia vs Japan, Estadio BBVA, Guadalupe, Mexico
June 25, 2026: Tunisia vs Netherlands, Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City, United States

Who is Tunisia's manager?

Head coach of Tunisia's national football team Sabri Lamouchi speaks during a press conference in Tunis. — Sabri Lamouchi has taken charge of Tunisia (Image credit: FETHI BELAID / AFP via Getty Images)

Sabri Lamouchi missed out on his country's defining moment at the Greatest Show on Earth in 1998: he was one of six axed from manager Aime Jacquet's preliminary France squad for the tournament on home soil, which Les Bleus capped with that legendary win.

2026 will see the 54-year-old travel to his second World Cup as a coach, having guided the Ivory Coast to the competition in 2014, where Les Elephantes went out at the group stage, but Lamouchi heads to North America, still getting to know his own players. He's managed just two games so far, following Sami Trabelsi's dismissal earlier this year.

Star player

Who is Tunisia's star player?

Tunisia's defender #06 Dylan Bronn, Tunisia's midfielder #13 Ferjani Sassi congratulate Tunisia's midfielder #17 Ellyes Skhiri after he scores a goal — Ellyes Skhiri is Tunisia's key man (Image credit: Getty Images)

With very few top-level operators, Ellyes Skhiri is the only Tunisian to have played Champions League football this season – though his side, Eintracht Frankfurt suffered a poor season in which they bombed out of Europe's league phase and finished eighth in the Bundesliga.

Skhiri is consistent in midfield for Tunisia: he'll be the first name on the team sheet, and in the absence of a real game-breaker, they'll rely on his leadership to keep them in games.

Best XI

TOPICS

Maher Mezahi is an African football journalist that has been covering the sport on the continent for over a decade for various media outlets including Al Jazeera English, The Athletic, The Guardian, ESPN FC and more. He has covered five Africa Cup of Nations tournaments and several African Champions League finals. Presently, he is a contributing editor at Africa Is a Country, and also hosts the African Five-a-Side podcast. He has produced and presented football documentaries for Vice Sports, Copa 90, FIFA+ and BBC. Mezahi lives and works in Algiers, Algeria and has been based there since 2016.

Tunisia World Cup 2026 squad ahead of the game against Sweden