Hannibal Mejbri’s start to life at Sevilla has been nothing short of tumultuous.
The 21-year-old departed Manchester United for Spain last month in hopes of acquiring increased game time at a new club, having only made 10 appearances under Erik ten Hag since the term began. Four of these were as a starter, and he featured for a total of 327 minutes on the pitch.
Alas, Hannibal opted against representing Tunisia at the Africa Cup of Nations to ensure a loan move was signed and sealed before the window closed. After rebuffing interest from Everton, he made the switch to Sevilla, where he’ll stay for the remainder of the season.
How Hannibal has fared so far at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan
Manager Quique Sanchez Flores awarded the midfielder his debut in an off-the-bench cameo versus Girona on January 21 before dropping him for the subsequent Copa del Rey tie away to Atletico Madrid on January 25.
To give supporters – and Hannibal’s parent club – some clarity on his decision, Flores issued the following statement: “After being with him [Hannibal], talking to him and having seen his first minutes in Girona, we are going to give him the necessary space to understand where he is, that he is at Sevilla and what it means.
“He has to know where he is and we want to see him. We have spoken with him and we believe that he has to have some time to learn, we wanted to give him space, time for him to see things from the outside and then he will return to the squad.
“In the end, they are kids who have come and suddenly and in a huge club like Sevilla in circumstances of maximum demand. And they need a bit of location. And that location may be seen better from the outside than from the inside. You should take a step to understand what we want.”
Surprisingly, the Carrington graduate was then included in the following matchday squad just three days later, as club president Jose Maria del Nido Carrasco spoke out to squash the speculation over their stance on Hannibal, saying: “I think things have been blown out of proportion a little. We are very excited about Hannibal.
“He’s only been here a couple of weeks, it’s a new country, a new culture, a new city, a different way of training, a different coaching style. We are super excited about Hannibal and convinced he is going to play a lot and breakthrough here at our club.”
And yet, there’s another twist in the tale; Sanchez Flores reacted to Sunday’s draw with Osasuna by speaking to the press and again name-dropping the United man with some constructive criticism.
“I am explaining to you the situation that this team has, which is similar to the team where he comes from. A team with disorder, with bad results, where sacrifice is above talented virtues. Only with talent, we have been defending a place in this division for two years. We need desire, order, ambition, desire to compete, and I try to transmit that to Hannibal. Sacrifice is probably not his best virtue, but we will find it,” he said, as cited by Manchester Evening News.
A permanent buy option was included in the player’s loan terms as well as a buy-back clause for United.
