Tunisian World Cup Team: 23 Writers

Critic James Murua started #AfricanWriterWorldCupSquad in 2014:

He imagined an all-Africa squad, writing:

The task is simple really. Choose three goalkeepers, eight defenders, eight defenders and five strikers to send to [Russia] like in any world cup team. In this instance, the goalies are the ones that ensure that the they keep the faith as the last barrier against bad prose. The defenders wouldn’t be the ones we keep talking about in the news or blogs but like good defenders do a lot in ensuring that the craft is defended with good prose.

The midfielders would be of two types; the energetic types churning out many good books and supporting the business to have a positive bank balance. These are also the ones you see at festivals either well known or that you may never heard of but represent the continent’s prose the fullest. Strikers are the ones for whom everything they put out is a hit with the critics and the market.

ArabLit attempted a 23-author Egyptian squad, as well as a Moroccan team.

Mona Kareem convinced me I need to have more experimentation among my strikers, hence why Habib Selmi (The Scent of Marie-Claire, Women of al-Basatin) is a midfielder and Aymen Mbarek (Lab619) is going to drive in the win. However, I still think poets should tend goal.

Again, remember, writers must be living to play, so sadly no Saghir Oulad Ahmed, Mahmoud Messadi, Muhammad Salih al-Jabri, Houcine El Oued, or Aboul-Qacem Echebbi.

Goalkeepers
Amina Said, Leila Chatti, Taher Bekri

Defenders
Houyem Ferchichi, Ali Znaidi, Fatma Ben Mahmoud, Besma Maroueni, Reem Gomri, Moncef Ouahibi, Shams Nadir, Albert Memmi

Midfielders
Inas Abassi, Hédi Kaddour, Hassan Nasr, Salah al-din Bujah, Choukri al-Mabkout, Aroussia Naluti, Habib Selmi 

Strikers
Rachida el-Charni, Hassouna Mosbahi, Kamel Riahi, Jonas Hassen Khemiri, Aymen Mbarek

Coach: Raja’ Ben Salamah