Zoubeir Baya (or Beya) (; born 15 May 1971) is a Tunisian former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

with a distinguished career as one of his country's most accomplished football exports. Baya, an attacking

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

, displayed considerable skill and enterprise on the international scene and provided the

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

n nation with vast international experience. Twice named ''Tunisian Footballer of the Year'', Baya suited up for his country at the 1998 World Cup in France and at the

1996 Atlanta Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

. He was also a key member of Tunisian sides that competed at the 1998, 2000 and 2002 African Nations Cup finals. He made his international swansong at the

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

, retiring shortly afterwards.

Career

Born in

M'saken M'saken ( ''Msākan''; also spelled ''Masakin'', ''Msaken'') is a town in north-eastern Tunisia, close to Sousse. Etymology The origin of the word comes from "Msaken" masken (plural masken) meaning "habitat", "house" or "dwelling". This refer ...

, Baya began his football career at

Étoile du Sahel Étoile may refer to: Places ;France * Charles de Gaulle – Étoile, station of the Paris Métro * Étoile-Saint-Cyrice, commune in the Hautes-Alpes department in France * Étoile-sur-Rhône, commune in the Drôme department in France * L'Éto ...

, helping the Tunisian club win the

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 ...

. He made his debut for

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

on 4 September 1994 against

Guinea-Bissau Guinea-Bissau ( ; pt, Guiné-Bissau; ff, italic=no, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫 𞤄𞤭𞤧𞤢𞥄𞤱𞤮, Gine-Bisaawo, script=Adlm; Mandinka: ''Gine-Bisawo''), officially the Republic of Guinea-Bissau ( pt, República da Guiné-Bissau, links=no ) ...

where he scored his first international goal. Over the past eight years, he has become an integral player for his country, earning 81 caps and scoring 18 goals for his country. His hard work at Étoile du Sahel did not go unnoticed, as 2. Bundesliga club

SC Freiburg Sport-Club Freiburg e.V., commonly known as SC Freiburg () or just Freiburg, is a German football club, based in the city of Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg. It plays in the Bundesliga, having been promoted as champions from the 2. Bund ...

signed him to a contract in 1997. In four seasons in Germany, Baya established himself as a star player and a regular starter, scoring 21 goals. In 2001, Baya was on the move again, this time venturing to Turkey after signing with

Beşiktaş Beşiktaş () is a district and municipality of Istanbul, Turkey, located on the European shore of the Bosphorus strait. It is bordered on the north by Sarıyer and Şişli, on the west by Kağıthane and Şişli, on the south by Beyoğlu, and ...

. Baya was instrumental in helping Tunisia qualify for its second consecutive World Cup finals. He started in all eight games during the qualification round and scored six goals, finishing as his country's top goal scorer and one of the bright spots on a team wracked by inconsistency in the previous year. After the

, he returned to Étoile du Sahel to play out the rest of his playing career. After completing two seasons with Etoile du Sahel he returned to home club CS M'saken for a season in the Tunisian second division before retiring.

International goals

:''Scores and results list Tunisia's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Baya goal.''

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Baya, Zoubier 1971 births Living people People from Sousse Governorate Tunisian footballers Association football midfielders Tunisia international footballers Olympic footballers of Tunisia Footballers at the 1996 Summer Olympics 1998 FIFA World Cup players 2002 FIFA World Cup players 1996 African Cup of Nations players 1998 African Cup of Nations players 2000 African Cup of Nations players 2002 African Cup of Nations players Tunisian Ligue Professionnelle 1 players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Süper Lig players Étoile Sportive du Sahel players SC Freiburg players Beşiktaş J.K. footballers CS M'saken players Tunisian expatriate footballers Tunisian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate footballers in Germany Tunisian expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Expatriate footballers in Turkey