Issam Chaouali () born 25 September 1970 in

Toulouse Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...

, France, is a Tunisian journalist and

sports commentator In Broadcasting of sports events, sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as a sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real time (media), real-time live commentary of a game or event, traditionally delivered in the present t ...

for the Qatari channel

beIN Sports MENA beIN Sports MENA () is a subsidiary of beIN Sports. It is based in Doha, Qatar, serving the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. They are owned by beIN Media Group, a former subsidiary of Al Jazeera Media Network; the sports channels wer ...

since 2009. He is the most famous and popular commentator in the

Arab world The Arab world ( '), formally the Arab homeland ( '), also known as the Arab nation ( '), the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, comprises a large group of countries, mainly located in West Asia and North Africa. While the majority of people in ...

. He comments on the most important summit matches in the world, the European and African championships.

Career

After graduating from philology, he started his career in 1995 at Radio Jeunes until he joined the Télévision Tunisienne in 1998. In 2001, he joined the Arabic-language station ART (

Arab Radio and Television Network Arab Radio and Television Network (acronym: ART) is an Arabic-language television network characterized by its multitude of channels. It is based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. History and profile ART was founded on 15 October 1993 by Saleh Abdul ...

), where he gained great fame. He commented on his first match in 1998 and it was a

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

match between

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

and

Inter Milan Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football ...

. After the ART station was taken over by Al Jazeera Sports in 2009, Chawali became one of the most outstanding Arab commentators. Currently, like most other leading Arab reporters, he is associated with the

Style

Chawali is characterized by courage and directness in his commentary. However, it may be difficult for a non-Arabic speaking person to understand. In his statements, he often intertwines words from various languages, especially French, and uses a lot of the

Tunisian Arabic Tunisian Arabic, or simply Tunisian (), is a Varieties of Arabic, variety of Arabic spoken in Tunisia. It is known among its 13 million speakers as ''Tūnsi'', "Tunisian" or ''Maghrebi Arabic, Derja'' (; meaning "common or everyday dialect") t ...

. In some situations he is quite eccentric, he can suddenly switch from simple speech to singing.

References

{{reflist 1970 births People from Toulouse Living people Tunisian journalists Al Jazeera people Tunisian television personalities