Why was Tunisia’s Hannibal Mejbri compared to David Beckham?
3 min readJun 12, 2026 05:42 PM IST The Manchester United dream didn’t quite come through the first time around for Hannibal Mejbri, given the despairing state the club was in during his 2020-2024 stay at their academy. But the Paris-born Tunisian wunderkid gathered enough testimonials to create a buzz around his game. Now signed with Burnley in EFL, Hannibal, the 23-year-old, will travel to his second World Cup with an enhanced reputation. Tunisia beat France 1-0 at the last World Cup – to no material consequence as they exited finishing third, with a match he didn’t play in. But Hannibal is all the rage this time. The half foot Afro from Man Utd U23 days is replaced by braids, but the words of Nicky Butt remain relevant. “Hannibal (Mejbri)’s a leader. The way he plays his football is 100mph, he’s non-stop running up and down,” Butt described to Manchester Evening News. “Leaders are always looked at like a Roy Keane, a Steve Bruce, a Bryan Robson, those kind of verbal, real aggression, real leaders,” …









