 Benachour playing forMálaga in 2010 | |||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Slim Ben-Achour | ||||||||||||||||
| Date of birth | (1981-09-08)8 September 1981 (age 44) | ||||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Paris, France | ||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.70 m (5 ft 7 in) | ||||||||||||||||
| Position | Attacking midfielder | ||||||||||||||||
| 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) | ||||||||||||||||
| 2022–2024 | Tunisia (assistant) | ||||||||||||||||
| 2024–2025 | Tunisia U20 | ||||||||||||||||
| 2025 | Chania | ||||||||||||||||
Medal record
| |||||||||||||||||
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||||||||||||||||
Selim Benachour (Arabic:سليم بن عاشور, Salīm bin ʻĀshūr; bornSlim Ben-Achour on 8 September 1981) is a French born Tunisianfootball coach and former professional player who played as anattacking midfielder.
Born in France, he represented France at youth international level before playing for Tunisia at senior international level.
Born and brought up in Paris, Selim Benachour learned to play his trade at theParis Saint-Germain academy. Benachour began his professional club career withParis 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 theCoupe de France in2004.[3]
He was given twice on loan fromParis Saint-Germain toMartigues in 2001–2002 andTroyes in 2003. He was sent to FrenchDivision 2 clubMartigues 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 toLigue 2 sideES 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]
In 2005, he left France and moved to Portugal, signing withVitória Guimarães, where he enjoyed one successful season at the club.
The next season, he signed a contract with the Russian sideRubin Kazan, where he played for two seasons and appeared in 23 league matches, scoring 3 goals. He was in Kazan's2006 La Manga Cup winning squad.
After two seasons with Kazan, he moved to Kuwait and signed forKuwaiti Premier League sideAl Qadsia and played there until 2009. With Qadsia, he won the2008–09 Kuwaiti Premier League.
In 2009, he signed with the SpanishLa Liga sideMálaga. 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]
On 21 January 2011, he returned to Portugal and signed a contract with theMarítimo until the end of the 2011–2012 season.[6]
On 16 June 2012, Benachour signed a two-year contract with the Cypriot clubAPOEL.[7] On 23 August 2012, he scored his first goal with APOEL in aEuropa Leagueplay-off round match againstNeftchi Baku inDalga 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 the2012–13 Cypriot First Division. During the 2013–14 season, he appeared in two2013–14 UEFA Europa League group stage matches for APOEL and won all the titles in Cyprus, theCypriot League,[9][10] theCypriot Cup[11][12] and theCypriot Super Cup.[13][14]
On 28 July 2015, he signed forIndian Super League clubMumbai City FC managed by his former teammateNicolas Anelka.[15][16][17] With Mumbai, he appeared in 11 matches with 3 assists and 1 goal,[18] as the club finished 6th in the2015 Indian Super League.
After the end of his stint with Mumbai, he came back to France in 2016 and signed withChampionnat National 2 sideFC Martigues. From 2016 to 2018, he appeared in 15 league matches with Martigues, scoring 2 goals.
Benachour played for France national teams at youth level from under-15 to under-20. In June 2001, after playing theToulon tournament withRaymond Domenech as a coach, he refused to play theunder-20 World Cup for France.[19]
He made his international debut on 11 January 2002 againstCameroon 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 forTunisia's national squad at the2002 World Cup. However, he was not included in the squad for the2006 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 the2004 African Cup of Nations, defeatingMorocco.[21][22]
Overall, 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 joinedForesta 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 atOlimpia Grudziądz in Poland's top division.
Moving to England, the UEFA A licence holder Benachour took up the position of under-18s manager atOldham Athletic in September 2020.[24]
He became caretaker first team head coach of Oldham Athletic on 24 November 2021, following the departure ofKeith Curle.
| 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 |
| Team | From | To | Record | Ref. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| P | W | D | L | Win % | ||||
| Foresta Suceava | 15 August 2018 | 8 April 2019 | 20 | 8 | 6 | 6 | 040.0 | [27] |
| Olimpia Grudziądz | 1 July 2020 | 31 July 2020 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 000.0 | [28] |
| Oldham Athletic | 24 November 2021 | 22 January 2022 | 9 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 011.1 | [29] |
| Tunisia U20 | 11 July 2024 | 1 January 2025 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 050.0 | |
| Total | 39 | 11 | 11 | 17 | 028.2 | |||
Tunisia under-21
Tunisia
Paris Saint-Germain
Qadsia
APOEL
Benachour was born in Paris, France, and ismultilingual. He speaks fluent French, English, Spanish andPortuguese.
Tunisia squads | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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