Karim Haggui (; born 20 January 1984) is a Tunisian former footballer who played as a defender. His last club was FC St. Gallen.
Club career
Early career
Born in Kasserine, Haggui started his career in 1998 with AS Kasserine in his home town, eventually moving to Etoile du Sahel two years later and starting his professional career there in 2003. He only spent one season as a professional with Etoile du Sahel and moved to French club RC Strasbourg in the summer of 2004.
RC Strasbourg
Haggui made his Ligue 1 debut in Strasbourg's first game of the 2004–05 season, a 2–1 away defeat at SC Bastia on 7 August 2004, coming on as a substitute. He did not play very much in the first half of the season, but eventually managed to find his place as a regular in the final few months of the campaign, making a total of 20 Ligue 1 appearances in his first season with Strasbourg. The club also won the French League Cup that season and qualified for the UEFA Cup.
He started his second season with Strasbourg as a regular, scoring his only two Ligue 1 goals with a brace in the club's 4–2 defeat at home to Toulouse on 24 September 2005. After appearing in 11 consecutive league games since the beginning of the season, he lost his place as a regular, nevertheless managing to make a total of 23 appearances in the league that season. He also appeared in six UEFA Cup matches before Strasbourg were knocked out by Basel in the round of 16, scoring the opening goal in their 5–0 win at home to Grazer AK on 29 September 2005.
Bayer Leverkusen
Strasbourg were relegated to Ligue 2 following their 19th-place finish in the 2005–06 Ligue 1 season and Haggui decided to join German Bundesliga side Bayer Leverkusen in the summer of 2006 on an undisclosed fee.
Haggui made his Bayer Leverkusen debut on 29 July 2006 against Schalke 04 in the German League Cup, playing the entire match which Leverkusen lost 9–8 on penalties. He once again played the entire match on his Bundesliga debut in Leverkusen's first match of the 2006–07 season, a 3–0 win at home to Alemannia Aachen on 12 August 2006.
He experienced mixed fortunes in his first season with Leverkusen, playing regularly for the majority of the season, but also receiving a total of 11 yellow cards in the league and delivering a couple of poor performances, most notably against Bochum in April 2007, where he was substituted only 23 minutes into the game after being directly responsible for two of Bochum's three goals in the opening 22 minutes. He finished the season with a total of 24 Bundesliga appearances. His first and only goal for Leverkusen that season came in their 2–1 away defeat at RC Lens in the UEFA Cup, a match where he was later sent off following his second yellow card. He appeared in a total of nine UEFA Cup matches before Leverkusen were knocked out by Osasuna in the quarter-finals.
He once again played regularly for Leverkusen in his second season with the club, eventually scoring his first Bundesliga goal when he netted the opening goal in their 2–0 win at home to Bochum on 15 September 2007. He added another Bundesliga goal to his tally when he opened the scoring in Leverkusen's 4–1 win at home to Nürnberg on 16 March 2008. He once again finished the season with a total of 24 Bundesliga appearances. In the UEFA Cup, he appeared in 11 games before Leverkusen were knocked out by eventual winners of the competition, Zenit St. Petersburg, in the quarter-finals. His only UEFA Cup goal that season came when he scored the fourth goal in Leverkusen's 5–1 win at home to Galatasaray in the third round.
However, he lost his place in the team in his third season with Leverkusen, only appearing in 11 Bundesliga games throughout the season. He did, however, manage to score his third Bundesliga goal when he opened the scoring in Leverkusen's 5–2 win at home to 1899 Hoffenheim on 30 August 2008, his first game that season. He also appeared in two games during Leverkusen's run to the final of the DFB-Pokal, but was left an unused substitute in the Berlin final which they lost 1–0 to Werder Bremen.
Hannover 96
On 1 June 2009, just two days after the German Cup final, Haggui decided to leave Leverkusen on a free transfer and signed a two-year contract with Bundesliga rivals Hannover 96.