Radhi Ben Abdelmajid Jaïdi ( ar, راضي بن عبد المجيد الجعايدي; born 30 August 1975) is a Tunisian former

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 ...

who played as a

centre back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either ...

. He was previously head coach of the under-23 team at

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

, head coach of

USL Championship The USL Championship (USLC) is a professional men's soccer league in the United States that began its inaugural season in 2011. The USL is sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation (U.S. Soccer) as a Division II league since 2017, p ...

team

Hartford Athletic Hartford Athletic is an American professional soccer team based in Hartford, Connecticut. The club was founded in 2018 and started play in the USL Championship in 2019. It is the only pro soccer team in Connecticut. History On June 8, 2021, Ha ...

, assistant coach at Belgian side

Cercle Brugge Cercle Brugge Koninklijke Sportvereniging () is a Belgian professional football club based in Bruges. Cercle have played in the Belgian Pro League since the 2003–04 season, having previously spent several years in the Belgian Second Divisi ...

and head coach at

Espérance de Tunis :''See also Esperance (disambiguation)'' Espérance is one of the two French words that can be translated into "hope", the other being "espoir". Whereas the latter is closer to the idea of "dream" or "fantasy" and corresponds to most of the commo ...

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 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 Birmingham City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Sin ...

in the summer of 2006 for £2 million. He made his debut in a 1–0 win over

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition building ...

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 club

, 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 two days later. He scored his first goal for the Saints in a 1–1 draw away to Carlisle United 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 Huddersfield Town Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The team have played home games at the Kirklees Stadium since moving from Leeds Road in 1994. Th ...

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

line-up and was selected by coach

Roger Lemerre Roger Léon Maurice Lemerre-Desprez (born 18 June 1941) is a French professional football manager and former player. During his managerial career, he was in charge of the French, Tunisian and Moroccan national teams. He also managed numerous c ...

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 Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

. 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, where they went out in the quarter finals to

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...

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

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 club

until August 2021. In August 2021, he joined his former club

as a head coach. On 25 September 2021, he won his first prize with his team by beating

CS Sfaxien Club Sportif Sfaxien ( ar, النادي الرياضي الصفاقسي) is a Tunisian professional association football club founded in 1928. History The club was founded in 1928 as ''Club Tunisien'', playing in green and red stripes. The tea ...

in the supercup. On 8 June 2022, he was sacked due to poor results after the elimination from

Tunisian Cup The Tunisian Cup , officially named the President's Cup, is the official competition of the Cup in Tunisian football and is considered the second most important local title after the Tunisian Ligue Professionnelle 1. The first cup competition was h ...

against CS M'saken.

Personal life

Jaïdi is Muslim. He was born in

Gabès Gabès (, ; ar, قابس, ), also spelled Cabès, Cabes, Kabes, Gabbs and Gaps, is the capital city of the Gabès Governorate in Tunisia. It is located on the coast of the Gulf of Gabès. With a population of 152,921, Gabès is the 6th largest ...

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

. 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 The Tunisian Ligue Professionnelle 1 (; ar, الرابطة المحترفة الأولى لكرة القدم) was previously called the Tunisian National Championship between 1956 and 1994. is the top division football tournament in Tunisia und ...

: 1993–94, 1997–98, 1998–99, 1999–2000, 2000–01, 2001–02, 2002–03, 2003–04 *

: 1996–97, 1998–99 *

Tunisian Super Cup The Tunisian Super Cup ( ar, كأس السوبر التونسي) or the Tunisia Premier Cup ( ar, كأس تونس الممتازة) was previously called the Tunisian Cup Winners' Cup. It is a Tunisian football competition organized by the Tunis ...

: 2001 * CAF Champions League:

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 sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson ...

* African Cup Winners' Cup:

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 s ...

CAF Cup The CAF Cup was an annual competition organised by the CAF for domestic leagues runners-up of member associations who have not qualified to the pre-existing CAF international club competition the African Cup of Champions Clubs. History The tou ...

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 ...

* CAF Super Cup: 1995 *

Arab Super Cup The Arab Super Cup ( ar, الكأس العربية الممتازة) was an Arab football competition, held between four teams (the winners and runners-up of both the Arab Club Champions Cup and the Arab Cup Winners' Cup) each year. History The ...

: 1996 Southampton *

Football League Trophy The English Football League Trophy, known for sponsorship purposes as the Papa Johns Trophy after restaurant chain Papa John's Pizza, is an annual English association football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL Le ...

: 2010 Tunisia * Africa Cup of Nations: 2004

As manager

ES Tunis *

: **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 coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...

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