Radhi Ben Abdelmajid Jaïdi ( ar, راضي بن عبد المجيد الجعايدي; born 30 August 1975) is a Tunisian former footballer who played as a centre back. He was previously head coach of the under-23 team at Southampton, head coach of USL Championship team Hartford Athletic, assistant coach at Belgian side Cercle Brugge and head coach at Espérance de Tunis.

Club career

Espérance

Before coming to England, Jaïdi was the only player at the time to have won all four of Africa’s annual cup competitions – all with Espérance.

Bolton Wanderers

Jaïdi signed for

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pike's ...

on a free transfer in July 2004 from Espérance Sportive de Tunis, who won the Tunisian league title the season before. Jaïdi became the first Tunisian player to play in the Premier League with Bolton.

Birmingham City

Jaïdi joined Birmingham City in the summer of 2006 for £2 million. He made his debut in a 1–0 win over Crystal Palace in the early stages of the season although he almost scored an own goal in this match. After three years with the club, he was not offered another deal when his contract expired at the end of June 2009.

Southampton

In August 2009, Jaïdi passed a medical and agreed personal terms with

Football League One The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...

club Southampton, but the transfer stalled when doubts arose over the player's eligibility for a work permit. However, on 2 September 2009, the club confirmed that Jaïdi had signed a two-year contract, subject to work-permit clearance. He received his international clearance on 10 September, and made his debut as a 77th-minute substitute at

Charlton Charlton may refer to: People * Charlton (surname) * Charlton (given name) Places Australia * Charlton, Queensland * Charlton, Victoria * Division of Charlton, an electoral district in the Australian House of Representatives, in New South Wale ...

two days later. He scored his first goal for the Saints in a 1–1 draw away to

Carlisle United Carlisle United Football Club ( , ) is a professional association football club based in Carlisle, Cumbria, England. The team compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. They have played their home games at Brunton Par ...

on 26 September; the 95th-minute goal came from a free kick which earned his side the draw. His first goal in the 2010–11 season came in a 4–1 victory over Huddersfield Town. He retired at the end of the 2011–12 season, having failed to make a first team appearance as he struggled with injury but remained at Southampton in an international development role.

International career

Jaïdi was also a regular in the Tunisia line-up and was selected by coach Roger Lemerre for the

2006 World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the ...

. He scored the goal which secured a 2–2 draw in their opening game against Saudi Arabia. He had previously been part of Tunisia's

2004 African Nations Cup The 2004 African Cup of Nations, known as the NOKIA African Cup of Nations, Tunisia 2004 for sponsorship reasons (also referred to as AFCON 2004 or CAN 2004) is the 24th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the biennial international men's footb ...

-winning squad, and played in the

. He captained the Tunisian national team in the

2008 Africa Cup of Nations The 2008 Africa Cup of Nations, also known as the MTN Africa Cup of Nations due to the competition's sponsorship by MTN, was the 26th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the biennial football tournament for nations affiliated to the Confederat ...

, where they went out in the quarter finals to Cameroon.

Coaching career

Radhi Jaidi in charge of Esperance de Tunis

Following the culmination of his playing career at Southampton, Jaïdi became head coach of Southampton under-23’s. In August 2019 he was linked with the vacant Tunisia national team manager job. On 7 November 2019 American team Hartford Athletic announced that Jaidi has been named the club's head coach for the 2020 USL season, subject to the completion of relevant documentation. He said he hoped the job would allow him to return to coach in Europe in the future. In February 2021, Jaidi was hired as an assistant coach for

Belgian First Division A The Belgian Pro League,(officially the Jupiler Pro League due to sponsorship reasons with Jupiler), is the top league competition for association football clubs in Belgium. Contested by 18 clubs since the 2020–21 season and reduced to 16 team ...

club Cercle Brugge until August 2021. In August 2021, he joined his former club Espérance de Tunis as a head coach. On 25 September 2021, he won his first prize with his team by beating CS Sfaxien in the supercup. On 8 June 2022, he was sacked due to poor results after the elimination from Tunisian Cup against

CS M'saken Croissant Sportif de M'saken ( ar, الهلال الرياضي بمساكن, often referred to as ''CSM''), translated into "Crescent Sports of M'saken", is an omni-sport club based in the city of M'saken in Tunisia. Founded in 1945, the team pl ...

Personal life

Jaïdi is Muslim. He was born in Gabès, Tunisia. His mother raised him on her own after his father died when he was eleven years old.

Career statistics

International goals

:''Scores and results list Tunisia's goal tally first.''

Honours

As player

ES Tunis * Tunisian Ligue Professionnelle 1: 1993–94, 1997–98, 1998–99, 1999–2000, 2000–01, 2001–02, 2002–03, 2003–04 * Tunisian Cup: 1996–97, 1998–99 * Tunisian Super Cup: 2001 *

CAF Champions League The CAF Champions League, known for sponsorship purposes as the TotalEnergies CAF Champions League and formerly the African Cup of Champions Clubs, is an annual football club competition organized by the Confederation of African Football and co ...

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

African Cup Winners' Cup The African Cup Winners' Cup was a football competition that started in 1975 and merged with the CAF Cup in 2004 to form the CAF Confederation Cup. It was a competition between the winning clubs of domestic cups in CAF-affiliated nations and was ...

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

* CAF Cup:

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

CAF Super Cup The CAF Super Cup (also known as African Super Cup or for sponsorship reasons TotalEnergies CAF Super Cup) is an annual African association football competition contested between the winners of the CAF Champions League and the CAF Confederation ...

: 1995 * Arab Super Cup:

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

Southampton * Football League Trophy:

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

Tunisia *

Africa Cup of Nations The Africa Cup of Nations referred to as AFCON (french: Coupe d'Afrique des Nations, sometimes referred to as CAN, or TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons), and sometimes as African Cup of Nations, is the main internati ...

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

As manager

ES Tunis * Tunisian Super Cup: **Winners :

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

References

External links

*
Birmingham City profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jaidi, Radhi 1975 births Living people Sportspeople from Tunis Association football defenders Tunisian footballers Tunisian Muslims Tunisia international footballers Espérance Sportive de Tunis players Birmingham City F.C. players Bolton Wanderers F.C. players Southampton F.C. players Premier League players English Football League players 2002 FIFA World Cup players 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup players 2006 FIFA World Cup players Footballers at the 1996 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers of Tunisia Tunisian expatriate footballers Tunisian expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate footballers in England 2000 African Cup of Nations players 2002 African Cup of Nations players 2004 African Cup of Nations players 2006 Africa Cup of Nations players 2008 Africa Cup of Nations players FIFA Century Club Southampton F.C. non-playing staff Hartford Athletic coaches Tunisian football managers Tunisian expatriate football managers Expatriate soccer managers in the United States Espérance Sportive de Tunis managers Tunisian people of African descent