page_title: Étoile Sportive du Sahel
section_title: Local and continental return (2013–present)
hierarchical_section_title: Étoile Sportive du Sahel / History / Local and continental return (2013–present)
caption_attribution_description: English: Baghdad Bounedjah
context_page_description: The Étoile Sportive du Sahel, is a sports club from Sousse in the Sahel region of Tunisia, known primarily for its football and basketball team. The club also has sections for handball, volleyball, judo and wrestling. ESS was founded on 11 May 1925 after a general meeting under the chairmanship of Chedly Boujemla, Ali Laârbi and Ahmed Zaklaoui, at the headquarters of the Association of the ancient French-Arab School in Laroussi Zarouk Street, in the heart of the ancient city of Sousse. The aim of the meeting was to establish a sports education society. The Tunisian flag was chosen in the selection of the colors of the team. The red shirt with the star and the white shorts. The French colonial authorities prevented the use of these colors, but with the insistence of the team leaders they prevailed and in the latter they played this kit. In English the name means Sport Star of the Sahel
  In Tunisia, Étoile du Sahel is considered to be one of the best clubs. For many years it had a reputation of playing entertaining football. In fact, the club has evolved recently into a more professional outfit capable of winning trophies at home and abroad.
context_section_description: In February 2013, former Cameroon coach Denis Lavagne was appointed to lead the team to qualify for the playoff phase of the local championship and competed for the last round before finishing in third place. In fact, ESS was champions in the first half of the last round. And despite the team exceeded JSM Béjaïa in the first round, the team failed to qualify for the semi-finals of the 2013 CAF Confederation Cup after losing to CS Sfaxien and Stade Malien. As for the 2012 Tunisian Cup, which was completed in 2013, ES Sahel managed to win it after beating CS Sfaxien 1–0 to be the first trophy they have won in the last five years.
  In December 2013, veteran Frenchman Roger Lemerre was hired to lead the team. He formed a number of players and succeeded in making successful assignments such as the Algerian Baghdad Bounedjah who finished the season as a goal for the local league despite finishing third in the league. He also managed to win the 2014 Tunisian Cup for the second time in the final after beating CS Sfaxien in the final with a last-minute goal of Bounedjah. After the end of his contract, Lemerre left the team with good impressions on the formation of an integrated team. The team signed with Serbian Dragan Cvetković, who did not stay in office more than a month after the catastrophic results of the 2014 CAF Confederation Cup by finishing last in the group to be replaced by coach Faouzi Benzarti.
  The team finished the season in second place of the local championship after an arbitration dispute led to the refusal of the team management to play the game of CS Hammam-Lif. However, the team managed to win the local cup after beating Stade Gabèsien 4–3 in the final to win the trophy for the third time. As for the continent, the team played in the 2015 CAF Confederation Cup, surpassing Moroccan Raja Casablanca in the first round as they qualified for the semi-finals after passing Stade Malien and its compatriot Espérance and winning Al Ahly of Egypt and then beat Zamalek in the semi-finals in a historic match 5–1 for ESS before going beyond Orlando Pirates in the final to win the first African title since 2008 dedicated to his return to Africa and become the most capped CAF Cup team with 4 titles.
  This African title win allowed ESS to play in the 2016 CAF Super Cup against TP Mazembe, but the team narrowly lost 2–1. Locally, the team managed to win the league after nine years to collect 77 points, breaking the Tunisian league record. The team was eliminated from the quarterfinals of the Cup after a defeat against Espérance 1–0 and in the same year the team was unable to qualify for the group stage from the African Champions League after defeating Enyimba narrowly 4–3 to qualify for the 2016 CAF Confederation Cup, which was close to the maintenance of the title after the qualification the semi-final, surpassing in the Group FUS Rabat, Kawkab Marrakech and Al Ahly of Tripoli before coming out in front of TP Mazembe in the semi-finals. After nearly three years at the helm of the team, Faouzi Benzarti and the team management were separated for financial reasons to go to Espérance de Tunis.
  The team's managing director appointed the former coach of TP Mazembe, Hubert Velud to coach the team, leaving the quarter-finals of the Cup against CS Hammam-Lif on penalties before coming in second place in the league after competing with Espérance in the last round. Continentally, The team managed to move beyond the group stage of the African Champions League, bypassing the two teams of Sudan: Al-Hilal and Al-Merrikh, and to beat Al Ahli Tripoli in the quarter-finals 2–0 to qualify for the semi-finals of the tournament for the first time in 10 years where they won the competition. But ESS lost to Al-Ahly 7–3 to get out of the competition and the dismissal of the French coach Velud. Most of the members of the administration, such as Ziad Jaziri and Hussein Jenayah, resigned.
  With the arrival of Algerian coach Kheïreddine Madoui, the team reached the final of the Tunisian Cup before losing to the Club Africain 4–1 in addition to the end of t
caption: Baghdad Bounedjah was one of the best players of the team.
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