It seems the great rivalry between Manchester United and Liverpool is always present in their players. The rivalry even spilled onto the international stage in a match between United youngster Hannibal Mejbri playing for Tunisia who faced Liverpool superstar Mohamed Salah and Egypt.
In a friendly yesterday, Mohamed Salah’s Egypt was humbled by Tunisia and won the match with a 3-1 score at Cairo. Tunisia was great right from the start, with Aïssa Laïdouni scoring the opener in the third minute, and later a Hamdi Fatih own goal in the eighth minute. Egypt did get back in the 34th minute through an Omar Kamal goal, but it was not enough. Later, deep into injury time, Hamza Rafia scored another to seal the game 3-1.
Who is Hannibal Mejbri?
Hannibal Mejbri is a 20 year old young talent who currently plays for Manchester United and the Tunisian national team. He mainly plays as a midfielder but hasn’t been able to break into Erik Ten Haag’s team yet. He is widely considered one of the best young players in Manchester United’s reserve team, and one of the emerging talents from Africa.
Hannibal was at Monaco in his youth years but lost favor with them soon. He then joined Manchester United for their youth teams in 2019 for a 5 million euro fee. He made his first appearance in May 2021 in a Premier League fixture. He spent last season on loan to Birmingham City in the Championship and played 38 games, where he also got his first professional goal.
The young Tunisian had played for both Tunisia and France at youth level, but eventually chose to represent Tunisia when he made his international debut in May 2021, as a substitute. He has now made 25 appearances for them and was even picked in the 2022 World Cup squad.
Hannibal Mejbri mocks Mohamed Salah
After the final goal, the Tunisian players started to celebrate in a wild manner. Along with the scorer Rafia, Hannibal Mejbri, along with other Tunisian players celebrated in a certain pose. They copied the famous yoga celebration that was made famous by Mohamed Salah.
The famed Liverpool winger has often celebrated in his iconic yoga pose, which involves holding his hands’ palms together and raising his left leg over the right one. According to the Mirror, it references the popular yoga pose known as ‘the tree’, and Salah himself said that he does a lot of yoga. In fact, he performs this celebration against Manchester United a lot.
Salah had played the whole game, but could not produce anything special to influence the game. Meanwhile, Hannibal had only joined the game as a substitute 10 minutes before the final whistle was blown.
Hannibal did shake hands after the game with Salah, so it seems the gesture was only done in a fun and friendly manner. Nevertheless, the two will be rivals again when they both return to their clubs after the international break.
