Olympique Béja

Every meeting with Club Athlétique Bizertin at Olympique Béja carries a name of its own, the Derby du Nord-Ouest. Béja and Bizerte sit close together in Tunisia's north-west, and matches against AS Gabès and Stade Tunisien draw attention too, while games with ES Métlaoui have often turned sharp for a plainer reason — both sides have too often been fighting off relegation at the same time.

Founded on 17 July 1929 by Mahmoud M'nakbi and three others, the club has never lifted the Tunisian Ligue Professionnelle 1 title, and its highest finish there remains fifth, in the 1997–98 season. What it has built instead is a record in the cups. The Tunisian Cup has come to Béja three times, and the 2022–23 run stands apart: a 1–0 final win over Espérance de Tunis, the goal scored by Oussama Bouguerra, Espérance beaten on the day that mattered. The Tunisian Super Cup followed the same pattern that year, Espérance beaten again.

Three Ligue 2 titles, the most recent in 2019–20, mark out a club that keeps working its way back up rather than settling in the second tier. In African competition, the furthest the club has gone is a Quarter-Final of the CAF Cup Winners' Cup, back in 1994.

The team plays as the Storks, a nickname locals know better as El Lampik, and local reporting has settled on another description for the club: a breeding ground for talent. Kaïs Amdouni, a goalkeeper from the town, left twice and came back twice, spells in 2010–2014 and again in 2020–2022. And whatever else changes at the club, the fixture against Bizertin still marks the calendar the way nothing else does.