Aymen Mathlouthi

Aymen Mathlouthi (Arabic: أَيْمَن الْمَثْلُوثِيّ; born 14 September 1984), also known as Balbouli, is a Tunisian professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Étoile du Sahel.

Aymen Mathlouthi
Mathlouthi with Tunisia at the 2018 FIFA World Cup
Personal information
Full name Aymen Mathlouthi[1]
Date of birth (1984-09-14) 14 September 1984
Place of birth Tunis, Tunisia
Height 1.82 m (6 ft 0 in)[2]
Position(s) Goalkeeper
Youth career
1995–2001 Club Africain
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2001–2003 Club Africain
2003–2018 Étoile du Sahel 302 (0)
2018 Al-Batin 7 (0)
2018–2019 Club Africain 5 (0)
2019 Al-Adalah 10 (0)
2020–2023 Étoile du Sahel 38 (0)
International career‡
2007– Tunisia 73 (0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 23:55, 25 November 2022 (UTC)
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 23:50, 25 November 2022 (UTC)

Regarded by pundits as the best Tunisian goalkeepers and one of the best African goalkeepers of all-time, some of his highlighted traits apart from goalkeeping, is his smooth ball control with his feet, and dribbling inside the penalty area. Mathlouthi won the 2011 African Nations Championship held in Sudan. The Confederation of African Football (CAF) chose Mathlouthi as the best goalkeeper in the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations held in Equatorial Guinea, being also included in the CAF Team of the Tournament. He was Tunisia's starting goalkeeper vs Panama at the last group stage match of the 2018 World Cup, which also marked his World Cup debut. Called-up for the 2022 World Cup, it will be his second representing his country.

Club career

From his earliest years, Mathlouthi joined the team's training center in his hometown (Djebel Lahmar in El Omrane), at the "Jeunesse Sportive d'El Omrane", where he trained as a goalkeeper.

In 1995, he decided to join Club Africain. Later, he joined Étoile du Sahel based in Sousse in 1998 and achieved all possible national and continental glory at the club. He also participated at the 2007 FIFA Club World Cup in Japan and finished in fourth place after defeating Mexican team CF Pachuca in the quarter-finals 1–0.

On 27 January 2018, he joined Saudi club Al-Batin on a free transfer.[3] On 23 July 2018, he returned to Club Africain, where he started his professional career, in a two-year deal. He later returned to Saudi Arabia, this time to Al-Adalah and then came back to Étoile du Sahel.[4]

International career

Mathlouthi received his first call-up with the Tunisia national team for the first time to replace Adel Nefzi in a 2008 Africa Cup of Nations qualification match against the Seychelles on 23 March 2007. Since then, he has played constantly.[5] He participated in all editions of Africa Cup of Nations since 2010 and 2011 African Nations Championship.

In June 2018 he was named in Tunisia’s 23-man squad for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.[6][7] After sitting on the bench of two matches, he was finally given the chance to make his historic World Cup debut in the final game against Panama due to injuries of Mouez Hassen and Farouk Ben Mustapha.

Personal life

Mathlouthi married on 13 May 2016. He celebrated his wedding in Sousse surrounded by his family and friends from Étoile du Sahel and the Tunisian team.

Career statistics

International
As of 17 July 2019[8]
Appearances and goals by national team and year
National teamYearAppsGoals
Tunisia 200710
200870
200930
201070
201160
2012110
201310
201440
201590
201650
2017100
201820
201910
Total670

Honours

ES Sahel

Tunisia

Individual

  • Mathlouthi was named in the substitutes of the 2016 CAF Team of The Year, but was the First-Choice Goalkeeper in 2017.[9]

References
  1. "FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 – Squad list: Tunisia (TUN)" (PDF). FIFA. 15 November 2022. p. 29. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  2. "2018 FIFA World Cup Russia – List of Players" (PDF). FIFA.com. Fédération Internationale de Football Association. 4 June 2018. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 June 2018. Retrieved 19 June 2018.
  3. @albatinclub (27 January 2018). "WELCOME أيمن المثلوثي 💙" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  4. "Aymen Mathlouthi signe pour deux ans au Club africain". 24 July 2018.
  5. Aymen Mathlouthi – FIFA competition record (archived)
  6. Crawford, Stephen (4 June 2018). "Revealed: Every World Cup 2018 squad - Final 23-man lists". Goal. Retrieved 16 July 2019.
  7. Okeleji, Oluwashina (2 June 2018). "Tunisia World Cup squad: Leicester City's Benalouane in 23-man squad". BBC Sport. Retrieved 17 July 2019.
  8. "Aymen Mathlouthi". National Football Teams. Benjamin Strack-Zimmermann. Retrieved 14 July 2018.
  9. "Award Winners" (PDF). CAF. 4 January 2018. Retrieved 4 January 2018.
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