Tunisia's once-narrow World Cup hopes boosted by French enrollment

When the World Cup draw determined the Group G quartet in December, the initial reaction suggested a chasm split the four sides down the middle.

Despite their recent histories of shortcomings in major tournaments, European leviathans England and Belgium were pegged for straightforward progression, while Tunisia and debutant Panama were judged to have slim hopes of advancing to the knockout stage.

Nearly 200 days later, courtesy of a recruitment drive that boosted the Eagles of Carthage's ranks with four French-born players, the gap between Nabil Maaloul's Tunisia and tournament-opening foe England has shrunk.

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Yohan Benalouane, Saif-Eddine Khaoui, Ellyes Skhiri, and Mouez Hassen answered the call (though attempts to lure Sevilla's Wissam Ben Yedder and Sami Khedira's brother Rani came up short), and all four could play a part in Russia.

Benalouane, 31, rebuffed numerous past approaches from Tunisia's national football federation. A skilled dribbler, the Leicester City defender brings equal parts experience and confidence to Maaloul's ranks. "We are not here to take part," Benalouane told the Telegraph. "We are here to take over."

Hassen, a former France youth international on Nice's books, kept a clean sheet on his Tunisia debut against Costa Rica in March at the familiar Allianz Arena. The 23-year-old was in the news recently for faking injury in international friendlies against Portugal and Turkey to allow his Tunisia mates to snatch a mid-match snack, Iftar, in compliance with Ramadan.

In the midfield, Skhiri and Khaoui, both 23, bring a variety of needed skills. The latter is set to help fill the void left by creative force Youssef Msakni, who was sidelined by a knee ligament injury while playing for club side Al-Duhail. Skhiri will sit deeper, as he did during a breakthrough campaign with surprisingly stingy Montpellier.

Recruitment drives, of course, are not unique to Tunisia. Morocco entered the World Cup with a tournament-high 17 foreign-born players, eight of them from France. Tunisia is joint-second with Senegal on nine, while Switzerland (eight) and Portugal (seven) round out the top five. Only nine of the 32 teams in Russia boast a 23-man squad sans foreign-born players.

All nine of Tunisia's players born abroad are from France, speaking to a massive diaspora stemming from the country's independence in 1956. According to a 2012 study, more than 1.2 million Tunisians reside abroad. Nearly 669,000 of them live in France, which can be attributed to both language and France's economic prosperity during the 1960s and '70s.

Influential attacking midfielder Naim Sliti is also from France, emerging from hometown Marseille's academy before a humbling move to Sedan. He has since climbed the ranks to Ligue 1 and had a solid campaign on loan from Lille at Dijon. Key creative force Wahbi Khazri was born in Corsican town Ajaccio, up-and-coming defender Dylan Bronn is from Cannes, and striker Anice Badri was reared in the backyard of Lyon's famed youth academy before a serious back injury sidelined an emerging career.

Forty years since topping Mexico 3-1 in Rosario to register the first World Cup win for an African side, Tunisia returns to football's biggest stage for the fourth time - and the first since the jasmine revolution ousted dictator Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali. Tunisia remains entangled in economic and political crises tethered to national debt and unemployment.

The Eagles of Carthage will provide a much-needed distraction, and after initial doubts stemming from December's draw, the quartet of French-born newcomers and some strong showings in a trio of World Cup tune-ups against Portugal, Turkey, and Spain have drastically raised ambitions.

Benalouane was sanguine when assessing Tunisia's chances, saying, "Yeah, it will be difficult for us, but it will be difficult for the other teams, too." It's Badri who perhaps better represents the sentiments of a nation with renewed footballing hope.

"England and Belgium don't scare me," the striker offered. "We're convinced we can get out of our group."

(Photos courtesy: Getty Images)