Born in
Ariana, Tunisia, Trabelsi grew up in
Sfax, and started his football career with his home town club Sfaxien, where he initially played as a forward. An injury crisis at Sfaxien resulted in Trabelsi playing as a stop-gap right-back, leading to him converting to defence and becoming the team's regular right-back. In 2001 Trabelsi moved to Europe, signing for Dutch club
Ajax. In 2003, Ajax unilaterally took up the option to extend Trabelsi's contract by three years. He took the matter to court, and lost. He then refused to play for the club. During the pre season of 2004, a £4 million transfer fee was agreed between Ajax and Arsenal, for Trabelsi to join the English champions. With the transfer looking imminent, even
Pro Evolution Soccer 4 included Trabelsi for Arsenal. However, after disagreements over Trabelsi's salary demands were reported, Trabelsi did not sign with Arsenal and soon returned home to Ajax, where he signed a two-year deal overruling the previous contract that had caused the rift. Injury and work permit problems prevented him from making his debut until a month into the season, a substitute appearance against
Reading on 11 September. He scored his first Manchester City goal against
Manchester United with a left foot shot to beat
Edwin van der Sar. Manchester City still lost the game 3–1. Trabelsi lost his right-back place in the side to
Micah Richards and
Nedum Onuoha. Trabelsi did not play a game after City's 1–0 win at
Newcastle United in March, and he was released at the end of the season. In November 2007, Trabelsi was close to a $1 million contract to play for one year at
Al Hilal in the
Saudi Pro League, but the deal collapsed. ==International career==