adel sellimi arabic was born on 16 november 1972 in the bab jedid district of tunis as a child he drew inspiration from the 1978 world cup team who became the first african nation to win a world cup match at the age of 10 he joined his first club club africain of tunis and he stayed there for the next 14 years picking up two tunisian league titles and one tunisia cup along the wayhis quick pace strength on the ball and creativity earned him a callup to the national team and he earned his first cap in september 1993 during a match against germany following a promising performance he carved out a virtually permanent place for himself in the countrys national team for the next eleven yearstunisians grew to appreciate his discretion in life outside football as a modest and determined professional on the pitch he singularly distinguished himself at international level during the 1996 african cup of nations finals in south africa as one of the best players of the tournament sellimi became a household name throughout the country a skillful and talented bright spark who carried the team to the final of the tournament for the second time in their history sellimi struck twice in the semifinal against zambia and was widely considered one of the best players in the tournamentthis movement into the limelight earned the player a transfer to french ligue 1 side fc nantes atlantique following another impressive showing at the 1996 olympic games in atlanta but his move to france marked the start of a long barren period although the nantes fans dubbed him the lung on account of the distance he clocked up during matches he never really settled in at his new club he hit just two goals in 30 appearances in his first season and failed to achieve the kind of success he had enjoyed back home in tunisia after another disappointing season in 199798 sellimi left nantes for spanish second division side real jan it was here that he got some firstclass matches under his belt and finally found form this surge in form earned him a callup to the 1998 world cup squad where he put in steady performances against england and romaniabundesliga side freiburg took a gamble on sellimi and partnered the player with other tunisian internationals anchorman zoubeir baya and fellow striker mehdi benslimane but here too he took a long time finding his true form and many at freiburg considered him a mistaken purchase during his first year however he proved his detractors wrong in the best possible way in the 19992000 season sellimi just could not stop scoring goals and even headed the bundesligas goalscoring list going into the winter breaka disappointing 2001 lead to sellimi missing out on the 2002 african cup of nations in mali and a number of international friendlies after a fallout with former national coach henri michel but the frenchmans replacement with ammar souayah coupled with the national teams goal drought brought about his recall the 2002 world cup in korea and japan turned out to be adel sellimis swansong in premier football competitions and he retired from international football shortly after the tournament at the age of 31 he returned to club africain shortly afterwards and is now head coach of jendouba sport in tunisia recently gaining promotion to ligue 1