A Tunisian World Cup star has revealed the reason behind his desire to swap Aaron Mooy shirts at Qatar after the two countries went head-to-head. And it turns out it’s because he has a family member who is a Celtic supporter! The player in question is Issam Jebali who took part in the Group D match with the Aussies back in the wintertime.
It was a really tight game that evening over in Qatar, as the Socceroos emerged victorious thanks to one goal from Mitchell Duke. The Aussies and Aaron Mooy of course went on to qualify from the group stage, going on to face eventual winners Argentina in the Round of 16. They lost that one unfortunately despite putting up a very gallant effort on the night and did their country proud.
Jebali, who plays in the J-League for Yosuke Ideguchi’s old side, Gamba Osaka as a striker, revealed he was over the moon to get his hands on the jersey of our magic man, Mooy, as his wife’s cousin is a major Hoops fanatic unbelievably. Its another revelation about just how global Celtic’s name and brand is and how authentic it is worldwide. After several appearances of Celtic tops in the crowd at the 2022 World Cup, this strengthens the image of the Bhoys as Scotland’s premier football club.
Jebali was on Optus Sport and spoke about the swapping of shirts with Aaron Mooy after that particular match. He said of the occasion: “One of my wife’s family, he really loves Celtic. The moment we knew we were playing Australia he said, ‘Please, if you play against Australia, if you can change your shirt with Mooy I will be happy’ so I actually did it for him.
The 31-year-old also added that Mooya nd his teammates played a good game and deserved to win: “Australia played a good game. Coming into the game we didn’t think we were the favourite (and) I don’t think Australia thought that as well, (but) Australia played a good game against us. I think they were smart, they played a good tactical game, they scored the goal and I felt like the game went so well for them.”
2014 World Cup the ‘Fergus McCann Celtic Supporters Club’ in Rio DiJaniero held a night for visiting Tims, about 30 turned up, this to a World Cup that Scotland or Ireland hadn’t qualified for, we are global. Also at one of the games a Uruguay fan spotted my Celtic jersey and came over, reeling off 30-40 of our greatest players but after naming a few he would come back to the same phrase repeatedly, “Bertie Auld, what a player, what a man”, he was still reporting it after several beers and our parting, mind he was right though, what a player, what a man.