Samir Ahmed Ayass (, ; ; born 24 December 1990) is a former professional
footballer
A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...
who played as a
midfielder
In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...
.
Coming through the youth system, Ayass began his senior career in 2008 at hometown club
CSKA Sofia
CSKA Sofia () is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia and currently competing in the country's premier football competition, the First League. ''CSKA'' is an abbreviation for ''Central Sports Club of the Army'' ...
, before moving to cross-city side Akademik Sofia in 2010. He then went on to play for various Bulgarian sides, namely
Minyor Pernik
FC Minyor () is a football club in Pernik, Bulgaria, currently competing in the Second League, the second tier of Bulgarian football. Founded in 1919 as SC Krakra, the club's home ground since 1954 has been Stadion Minyor. The club's name comes ...
,
Bansko
Bansko ( ) is a town in southwestern Bulgaria, located in Blagoevgrad Oblast near the city of Razlog. Once mainly a stockbreeding and travelling merchant community, the town is now an international centre for winter and summer tourism. More rec ...
,
Montana
Montana ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota to the east, South Dakota to the southeast, Wyoming to the south, an ...
,
Lyubimets
Lyubimets ( ) is a small town in Haskovo Province, southern-central Bulgaria. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous Lyubimets Municipality. As of December 2009, the town had a population of 7,670.Beroe Stara Zagora, before returning to CSKA Sofia in 2015, winning the
Bulgarian Cup
The Bulgarian Cup () is a Bulgarian annual football competition. It is the country's main cup competition and all officially registered Bulgarian football teams take part in it.
The tournament's format is ''single-elimination'', with all matche ...
. The following year he joined
Dunav Ruse
FC Dunav (, officially named ''"Дунав от Русе"'') is a Bulgarian professional football club based in Ruse, which currently competes in the Second League, the second tier of the Bulgarian football league system.
Part of a larger spor ...
, before moving to Lebanon in 2017 to Ahed. After having won multiple titles, including the
2019 AFC Cup
The 2019 AFC Cup was the 16th edition of the AFC Cup, Asia's secondary club football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).
Al-Ahed from Lebanon won the title for the first time, defeating April 25 from North Korea in ...
, Ayass returned to Dunav Ruse in 2019, before moving to Persiraja in Indonesia the following year. He moved back to Bulgaria in 2021, at
Botev Vratsa
Botev () is a Bulgarian professional association football, football club based in Vratsa, that competes in the First Professional Football League (Bulgaria), First League, the top division of Bulgarian football.
The club was founded in 1921. Si ...
, and then joined Malaysian side
Perak
Perak (; Perak Malay: ''Peghok'') is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia on the west coast of the Malay Peninsula. Perak has land borders with the Malaysian states of Kedah to the north, Penang to the northwest, Kel ...
.
Born in Bulgaria, Ayass represented them at youth level before switching allegiance to Lebanon, for whom he made his senior international debut in 2017. He helped his team reach the
2019 AFC Asian Cup
The 2019 AFC Asian Cup (or commonly called the Asian Cup 2019) was the 17th edition of the men's AFC Asian Cup, the quadrennial international association football, football championship of Asia organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) ...
for the first time through qualification, playing in the final tournament.
Early life
Samir Ayass was born in
Sofia
Sofia is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain, in the western part of the country. The city is built west of the Is ...
, Bulgaria to a Lebanese father and a Bulgarian mother. He started his playing career at
CSKA Sofia
CSKA Sofia () is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia and currently competing in the country's premier football competition, the First League. ''CSKA'' is an abbreviation for ''Central Sports Club of the Army'' ...
at the age of six.
Club career
Dunav Ruse
On 6 October 2016, Ayass signed a one-and-a-half-year contract with
Dunav Ruse
FC Dunav (, officially named ''"Дунав от Русе"'') is a Bulgarian professional football club based in Ruse, which currently competes in the Second League, the second tier of the Bulgarian football league system.
Part of a larger spor ...
. He scored his first goal for the team on 9 April 2017, in a 1–0 win over champions
Ludogorets Razgrad
Professional Football Club Ludogorets 1945 (), commonly known as Ludogorets Razgrad or simply Ludogorets, is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Razgrad, which currently competes in the First Professional Football League ...
.
Ahed
On 4 August 2017, Ayass signed a two-year contract with
Lebanese Premier League
The Lebanese First Division (), commonly known as the Lebanese Premier League (), is the top division of the Lebanese football league system. Established in 1934 and organized by the Lebanese Football Association (LFA), the Lebanese Premier Leagu ...
champions Ahed for an undisclosed fee. He returned to
Dunav Ruse
FC Dunav (, officially named ''"Дунав от Русе"'') is a Bulgarian professional football club based in Ruse, which currently competes in the Second League, the second tier of the Bulgarian football league system.
Part of a larger spor ...
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
, Ayass was released. He re-joined in March 2021 on trial ahead of the
2021 season
1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...
.
Botev Vratsa
On 3 April 2021, Ayass returned to Bulgaria, joining
Botev Vratsa
Botev () is a Bulgarian professional association football, football club based in Vratsa, that competes in the First Professional Football League (Bulgaria), First League, the top division of Bulgarian football.
The club was founded in 1921. Si ...
for the final part of the 2020–21 First Professional League. He made his debut on 8 April, coming on as a substitute and winning a penalty for his team; they lost 2–1 to
Botev Plovdiv
Profesionalen Futbolen Klub Botev AD, commonly referred to as Botev Plovdiv (, ), or simply Botev (within its associated city), is a Bulgarian professional Association football, football club based in Plovdiv. It competes in the First Professiona ...
. Ayass helped Botev avoid relegation.
Perak
On 19 June 2021, Ayass moved to
Perak
Perak (; Perak Malay: ''Peghok'') is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia on the west coast of the Malay Peninsula. Perak has land borders with the Malaysian states of Kedah to the north, Penang to the northwest, Kel ...
in the
Malaysia Super League
The Malaysia Super League (), known simply as the Super League (), is the men's top professional Football in Malaysia, football division of the Malaysian football league system. Administered by the Football Malaysia Limited Liability Partnersh ...
. He left the club at the end of September after his contract expired.
International career
Bulgaria
Ayass played for the Bulgarian under-21 team between 2011 and 2012, and was capped three times. However, he was never called up for the senior team.
Lebanon
Eligible to represent
Lebanon
Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...
through his father, on 20 March 2017 he accepted the call up for Lebanon for the match against
Hong Kong
Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...
on 28 March 2017, for the
2019 AFC Asian Cup qualification
The 2019 AFC Asian Cup qualification was the qualification process organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) to determine the participating teams for the 2019 AFC Asian Cup, the 17th edition of the international men's football champions ...
. He completed his debut, coming as a substitute on the 69th minute.
On 10 October 2017, Ayass scored his first international goal for Lebanon against
North Korea
North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu River, Yalu (Amnok) an ...
, in a 5–0 home win at the Asian Cup qualifications. In December 2018, he was called up for the
2019 AFC Asian Cup
The 2019 AFC Asian Cup (or commonly called the Asian Cup 2019) was the 17th edition of the men's AFC Asian Cup, the quadrennial international association football, football championship of Asia organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) ...
squad, featuring in two group stage games.
Style of play
Ayass is a technical
midfielder
In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...
with good attacking capabilities.
Career statistics
Club
International
:''Scores and results list Lebanon's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Ayass goal.''
Honours
CSKA Sofia
*
Bulgarian Cup
The Bulgarian Cup () is a Bulgarian annual football competition. It is the country's main cup competition and all officially registered Bulgarian football teams take part in it.
The tournament's format is ''single-elimination'', with all matche ...
AFC Cup
The AFC Champions League Two (abbreviated as the ACL Two or ACL2) is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation. It is the second-tier competition of Asian club football, ranked below the AFC C ...
:
2019
This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year.
Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...
*
Lebanese Premier League
The Lebanese First Division (), commonly known as the Lebanese Premier League (), is the top division of the Lebanese football league system. Established in 1934 and organized by the Lebanese Football Association (LFA), the Lebanese Premier Leagu ...
Lebanese FA Cup
The Lebanon Cup (), commonly known as the Lebanese FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in domestic Lebanese football.
In the first FA Cup final, held on 26 June 1938, Nahda beat Hilmi-Sport 3–2 in the replay (after drawing 1 ...
Lebanese Super Cup
The Lebanese Super Cup () is Lebanese football's annual match contested between the champions of the previous Lebanese Premier League season and the holders of the Lebanese FA Cup. If the Lebanese Premier League champions also won the Lebanese FA ...
: 2017, 2018
See also
*
List of Lebanon international footballers born outside Lebanon
The Lebanon national football team has used footballers Lebanese diaspora, born outside Lebanon throughout its history with varying success. As a result of the dominance of clubs founded by the Armenian diaspora in Lebanon, between the 1940s a ...
*
List of sportspeople who competed for more than one nation
This is a list of sportspeople who have competed for more than one nation. Not included in this list are:
*Players who could choose to play for a new country after the dissolution of their former country. This mainly affected players from the fo ...