Étoile du Sahel Is Cutting Its Squad and Buying in West Africa. The Signings Cannot Be Registered Yet

Sousse has brought in six players this window while pushing others out, in an explicit effort to shrink the wage bill. La Presse reports the new arrivals await registration until a recruitment ban is lifted — three weeks before the season opens at Espérance.

SOUSSE — Étoile du Sahel confirmed two more signings at the weekend, both defensive midfielders and both from outside Tunisia: Senegal's Ousmane Yéri Diakhaté, 23, on a three-year deal until 30 June 2029 from Ajel Rufisque, and Nigeria's Ambrose Ochigbo, 20, on a three-season contract from Qatar's Al Khor, a player Tunisian audiences already know from Espérance de Zarzis.

Diakhaté is the club's fifth recruit of the window, after Azmi Ghouma, Achref Ben Dhiaf, Abdallah Amri and Liberia's Mohamed Sangaré, according to La Presse and WebManagerCenter.

The arrivals come with a caveat. La Presse reported that the new players are awaiting registration pending the lifting of a recruitment ban on the club — meaning that, as things stand, Sousse has assembled a squad it cannot yet field in full.

Buying and selling at the same time

The club's stated strategy is subtraction as much as addition: reduce the squad, lighten the wage bill, keep only players who earn their place on the pitch. The Algerian trio of Ben Maâzouz, Ben Ahmed and Boutmène have left, and Maher Ben Sghaïer cut his spell in Sousse short. La Presse reports an offer from MC Alger for Kenyan defender Alphonce Omija, and lists Smichi, Senghor and Abid among those the club is willing to move on.

Wajdi Kechrida, the 34-year-old right-back, has returned to training with the group after a period of friction with the board — a useful outcome for a coaching staff that will need experienced players around a young intake.

The recruitment pattern is the more interesting part. With Sangaré, Diawara, Senghor and Bah already on the books, the two weekend signings confirm a deliberate turn towards the sub-Saharan market. The logic is straightforward: comparable athletic profiles at a fraction of the price of a domestic Ligue 1 signing, and — for the buying club — a resale value that a 30-year-old Tunisian international no longer carries.

The risk in the plan

The vulnerability is that the plan depends on two things happening in the right order. A squad rebuilt around new arrivals only works if those arrivals can play, and registration is not in the club's gift once a ban is in place.

The calendar offers no cushion. Étoile open the 2026-27 Ligue 1 season away at Espérance de Tunis on 22 or 23 August, the fixture the federation drew as the opening weekend's headline. La Presse notes that three players — defender Slim Khadhraoui and forwards Rayan Anen and Yassine Chaâbani — will miss the opening rounds with the olympic national team at the Mediterranean Games in Taranto.

Coach Bracconi therefore faces the first serious test of the season with an incomplete squad and, potentially, several new players still unavailable on paper.

The wider pattern

The Sousse approach is not eccentric. It is the same calculation that Tunisian clubs across the top flight have converged on: domestic revenues are capped, debts are heavy, and Gulf and North African buyers can outbid any Tunisian club for a proven player. A club that cannot retain talent can at least stop paying for talent that is not producing — which is what "shrink the squad, cut the wage bill" means in practice.

What separates a rebuild from a decline, in that model, is the recruitment department. Six signings in one window is a bet that the scouting is good. The season starting on 22 August will price that bet fairly quickly.