After Tunisia’s bitter exit from the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations in the round of 16 against Mali, Tunisian star Hannibal Mejbri made strong statements to the media.
The Malian national team qualified for the quarter-finals to face Senegal, after a 1-1 draw with Tunisia and a 3-2 penalty shootout victory.
In his statements to reporters, Mejbri said: “I don’t want people to hate me for what I’m going to say, but I don’t understand why we haven’t talked about it yet. Tunisia is 10 years behind in football and we cannot continue in the same way.”
He added: “We have to sit down and really ask ourselves (about this situation). We have to train or relearn everything, yes everything.”
He stressed the importance of developing Tunisian football, starting with “the smallest member of the system to the largest.”
He continued: “The state is behind and Tunisian football is behind compared to other countries that we see today, such as Morocco. (22) years ago we organized the African Cup of Nations and nothing remains of that.”
He explained: “We are not talking about it, even the media. I don’t live in Tunisia, maybe I’m not in the right place to talk about these things.”
Mejbri concluded his statements by saying: “We are frustrated by this exit and we could have done better, because we have a lot of positive things.”
