Ahmed Mghirbi (; 17 June 1946 – 16 March 2021) was a Tunisian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player and coach.

Club career

Born on 17 June 1946, in

Manouba Manouba ( ') is a city in north-eastern Tunisia, and is part the metropolitan area of Tunis, also called Grand Tunis. It is located at the west of Tunis city center at around . It is the capital city of Manouba Governorate. Manouba is well known ...

, Mghirbi began his career at

Stade Tunisien Stade Tunisien (; ), abbreviated as ST, is a football club based in Le Bardo, a western suburb of Tunis (formerly the residence of the Beylical patronage). It is considered one of the top teams in the Tunis region, alongside Espérance Sportive ...

as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

; he played 256 matches between 1965 and 1975, scoring seven goals. Mghribi helped his team win the

Tunisian Cup The Tunisian Cup (), formerly known as Tunisian President Cup (1956–2011), is the premier Single-elimination tournament, knockout football competition in Football in Tunisia, Tunisian football, organized annually by the Tunisian Football Federati ...

in , and won the Golden Boot in as the league's top goalscorer.

International career

Mghirbi played for the Tunisia national team. He made his debut against

Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...

in 1966, and played his last match against

Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...

in 1972. Mighirbi played 34 international matches, winning silver at the 1971 Mediterranean Games.

Managerial career

Mghribi coached several clubs, namely Stade Tunisien, , , and

Olympique Béja Olympique de Béja (), known as O Béja or simply OB for short, is a Tunisian football club based in Béja. The club was founded in 1929 and its colours are red and white. Their home stadium, Boujemaa Kmiti Stadium, has a capacity of 15,000 spe ...

Personal life

Mghirbi later served as an analyst for the television channel

Nessma Nessma El Jadida (, translation: New Breeze), formerly known as Nessma TV (, translation: "Breeze TV") and Nessma Rouge (, translation: Red Breeze) was a commercial TV channel based in Tunisia, targeting Tunisia and the Maghreb countries. It was ...

and Tunisian national programming.

Death

On 16 March 2021, Mghibi died aged 74 after suffering from

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

for two years.

Honours

Player

Stade Tunisien *

: Tunisia *

Mediterranean Games The Mediterranean Games is a multi-sport event organised by the International Committee of Mediterranean Games (CIJM). It is held every four years among athletes from countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea in Africa, Asia and Europe. The fi ...

Silver Medal:

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses (Solar eclipse of February 25, 1971, February 25, Solar eclipse of July 22, 1971, July 22 and Solar eclipse of August 20, 1971, August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 1971 lunar eclip ...

Individual * Tunisian National Championship Top Scorer:

Coach

Stade Tunisien * Tunisian Cup:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mghirbi, Ahmed 1946 births 2021 deaths People from Manouba Governorate Tunisian men's footballers Men's association football central defenders Stade Tunisien players Tunisian Ligue Professionnelle 1 players Tunisia men's international footballers Tunisian football managers Stade Tunisien managers Olympique Béja managers Tunisian Ligue Professionnelle 1 managers Deaths from cancer in Tunisia