Draft:Alaya Sassi

Ali Sassi, better known as Alaya Sassi, born 5 January 1942 in Sfax and died 13 June 2013, is a Tunisian former footballer who played as a Forward, he is characterized by his passing and his sense of placement.

Career
After having proven himself in the youth categories of the Club Sportif Sfaxien, then called the Tunisian Club, notably winning the junior championship in 1960, within a team composed of Sadok Chabchoub, Rachid Daoud, Youssef Trabelsi, Abdessalem Trabelsi, Mongi Fakhfakh, Mahmoud Derbal, Hédi Ben Arab, Ali Graja and Mohamed Khrouf, he is integrated into the senior team by Algerian coach Mokhtar Arribi. Then the coach to whom the club owes its clear progress, Milan Kristić, allows him to refine his talent. Coach André Gérard did not take long to call him to the Tunisia national team and he constituted, with Mohamed Salah Jedidi, Hammadi Henia, Mongi Haddad and Raouf Ben Amor, an attack line which won the 1963 Arab Cup and the silver medal from the Dakar Friendship Games.

between 1965 and 1966, he joined his friend Hammadi Henia in Algeria to form a tandem at USM Bel Abbès. He first spent one season there then another two years later. Coach Branislav Acimovic reconverted him into an attacking midfielder and team strategist in 1966–67. In the meantime, the Club Sportif Sfaxien, which has begun long-term work, is beginning to reap the fruits of its efforts with several youth titles. Hammadi Agrebi, Moncef Melliti, Mohamed Akid, Moncef Ben Barka, Habib Trabelsi and Abdelwahab Ben Ghazi needed the supervision of experienced players and Sassi played his role with great success: the club won the National Championship in 1969 and the double in 1971. He continued to lend them a hand until 21 April 1974, when he hung up with the feeling of duty accomplished.

Honours

 * CS Sfaxien
 * Tunisian National Championship: 1968–69, 1970–71
 * Tunisian Cup: 1970–71
 * Tunisia
 * Arab Cup: 1963