To be respected, you need to be fearless, says Hannibal Mejbri as Tunisia eye World Cup upset

LOS ANGELES – Sweden, Japan, the Netherlands.

Tunisia’s 2026 World Cup opponents in Group F – who are all ranked higher than the North Africans – were read out to Hannibal Mejbri before he is asked how difficult it would be to qualify for the knockout stages.

The 23-year-old barely blinks.

“Myself and Tunisia, we don’t fear anyone,” he said matter-of-factly to The Straits Times in an interview in the lead-up to the tournament.

Tunisia, the world No. 45, will kick off their campaign against Sweden at the Estadio Monterrey in Mexico on June 14 (June 15, Singapore time).

Only when he is pressed further about where that mentality comes from, does Mejbri reflect on his childhood in the housing blocks of Paris, where he learnt the rules of survival long before playing football professionally.

“I grew up in an area where you needed not to fear anyone,” he explained.

“To be respected, you needed to be fearless and be yourself. I grew up like this. I know my qualities.

“I grew up playing football below my housing block, and when you play every day, against old people, young people, you need to be at your best, and if you want to continue playing, you need to be the best, so that’s how you are forced to grow.”

A native of Paris born to Tunisian immigrants, he was raised in the 20th arrondissement. This bustling, working-class neighbourhood in the French capital is renowned for its longstanding status as one of the city’s most culturally varied districts.

In another recent interview with Olympics.com, Mejbri described it as a neighbourhood of “many Tunisians, many Algerians, many Moroccans, lots of Senegalese, Malians as well” and as a place where football was the common language.

It was in this area that Mejbri would “play football until night fell”.

Combative street football there – under a block of flats nicknamed La Banane (the Banana) due to its curved shape – laid the foundation and when he was six, he joined Paris FC’s academy, spending the better part of seven years there before leaving for a brief spell at Boulogne-Billancourt.

And in 2018, Ligue 1 side Monaco signed the then 15-year-old to their youth academy. His talent then attracted English Premier League giants Manchester United who signed him about a year later.

He made his Premier League debut in May 2021 and in September 2023, he scored his first top-flight goal for the club in a 3-1 home defeat by Brighton & Hove Albion.

But he found no stability at Old Trafford and after loan moves to Birmingham City and Sevilla, he joined Burnley on a permanent four-year deal in August 2024.

Throughout his time in English football, most recently with the Clarets, for whom he scored once and notched four assists in 27 games in the 2025-26 season that ultimately saw them being relegated, the Tunisian international has earned a reputation as a combative, hard-pressing midfielder.

Some of that combative streak is reflected in his club-high tally of 10 yellow cards in the Premier League last season.

Only four players were booked more times during the campaign.

His fighting spirit is also evident in willingness to make his voice heard for the betterment of his national team.

After Tunisia’s last-16 exit at the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations at the hands of Mali, Mejbri hit out at the management of football in the country, calling for a complete overhaul of the game in the nation.

“We are behind in our football, and it needs to be said. We are lagging in so many areas,” he was quoted as saying by RMC Sport.

“All the people responsible for Tunisian football need to sit down together and ask the real questions, because we are really behind.

“When you look at Algeria, Morocco, all the African countries progressing except us, in every aspect, I don’t even have the words. Where do we start? Our mentality, I think. Sorry, maybe this will go around Tunisia, but we dream too much and maybe we don’t work hard enough.”

Changes have taken place, with Sami Trabelsi dismissed from his head coach role in January and Sabri Lamouchi tasked with overseeing a miracle, maiden qualification from the World Cup’s group stage.

Mejbri, who represented France at Under-16 and U-17 levels, before he committed his international future to his parents’ homeland in 2021, was one of Tunisia’s youngest players at the 2022 World Cup.

Then, the Eagles of Carthage delivered one of the tournament’s standout shocks, a 1-0 victory over France in their final group game but a draw and a 1-0 defeat by Australia meant they went home at the group stage for the sixth time in as many World Cup appearances.

“We did quite good, but we just had one game where we messed up,” said Mejbri on their group-stage exit four years ago.

“We need to learn about the negative, but we’ve got quite a new squad, new experience, so we’re going to try to bring all the positives to this World Cup. It’s not going to be an easy one… but we just need to focus and give our best.”

Mejbri – who often operates in a more advanced No. 10 role for his country – will be relied upon to bring both his trademark fight and, more importantly, his creativity in the final third if they are to cause any surprises.

When asked if he and his team would look to Morocco’s extraordinary run at Qatar 2022 – where they became the first African semi-finalists – for inspiration, his reply offers further proof that his motivations are his people and his people only.

Mejbri said: “They did what they did. Congratulations to them. We are Tunisia, and I don’t look at anyone else. I don’t look at the plate of someone else. I look at whatever I have, and we need to work for that.”

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