Ayoub Lajhar is now with FC Cincinnati, but before he ever touched a soccer ball professionally, he was held at gunpoint in the trunk of a car for two days after being kidnapped at age nine. That ordeal, along with a stretch of homelessness that followed his family's flight from Libya to Tunisia, forms the backdrop to a rise that has carried him from a war-torn childhood to Major League Soccer.
Lajhar was raised in Libya, where his father Suleiman had been a professional soccer player before dying of cancer when Lajhar was six months old, according to WCPO 9 Cincinnati. Lajhar has said he wanted to follow his father's professional soccer path, the station reports. His mother, Nebras Elrebat, worked as a women's activist and faced a hostile and violent environment as part of that activist group, per the same account — circumstances that eventually pushed the family to flee Libya for Tunisia amid civil war.
A Kidnapping and Years Without a Home
It was during this period of upheaval that Lajhar, then nine years old, was kidnapped by men driving a white BMW, who held him at gunpoint and confined him in a car trunk, the station's report states. He was held in captivity for two days before a man outside a store rescued him, according to the same account. Lajhar and his mother were homeless for about two years afterward, working day jobs in Tunisia and living on the streets or under bridges when they lacked money, the article notes.
A woman named Manal helped Lajhar join a Tunisian soccer team and later helped Nebras Elrebat enroll in a School for International Training study abroad program, per the same account. That program helped move Lajhar and his mother to the United States, landing them in Brattleboro, Vermont, around 2017, when Lajhar was about 12 years old, according to details corroborated by UConn Athletics.
The Vermont Host Who Took Them In
In Brattleboro, Linda Duggan housed Lajhar and his mother for around six years, per WCPO's reporting. Duggan was known locally for sheltering international students, and she died in February 2021, according to an obituary published by Legacy.com. While in Vermont, Lajhar attended Vermont Academy, where he played as an attacking midfielder and led Class C Vermont high school soccer in goals and assists, according to FC Cincinnati.
From Vermont Green to the UConn Backline
Lajhar also played two summer seasons in USL League Two for Vermont Green FC, in 2024 and 2025, per The Blazing Musket. He committed to the University of Connecticut, where he shifted from attacking midfielder to left-back, a positional switch that reshaped his path to the pros. Over three seasons at UConn from 2023 to 2025, he made 52 total appearances, capped by a 2025 season in which he recorded one goal and a team-high seven assists while earning Second Team All-BIG EAST honors, according to UConn's athletics department.
A Rapid Rise Through Cincinnati's Ranks
FC Cincinnati selected Lajhar with the 55th overall pick, 25th in the second round, during the 2026 MLS SuperDraft in December 2025, per UConn Huskies athletics. He began the year on an MLS NEXT Pro contract with FC Cincinnati 2 before signing a first-team MLS contract on May 9, 2026, that runs through the 2026 season with additional club options, according to FC Cincinnati's official announcement.
His first-team competitive debut came on February 25, 2026, when he recorded two assists in a 21-minute appearance off the bench during a 9–0 Concacaf Champions Cup victory over O&M FC, the club reports. In doing so, he became the first Vermont Green FC alumnus to participate in a continental competition, per The Blazing Musket. He made his official MLS regular-season debut for FC Cincinnati in spring, on April 25, 2026, against Red Bull New York, after previously appearing on short-term roster call-ups.
Playing for His Father's Memory
Lajhar has said he feels his late father's presence on the pitch, and that his professional debut fulfilled an achievement that once seemed impossible, according to WCPO. He has said he wants to fulfill his late father's dream and give him the opportunity to look down on him and say thank you, the station reports. His journey — from a kidnapping in Libya and homelessness in Tunisia to a scholarship at UConn and now a first-team contract in MLS — traces a path built on institutional stepping stones: the School for International Training, USL League Two, the NCAA ranks, and MLS NEXT Pro.
Lajhar's rise adds another storyline to FC Cincinnati's 2026 roster. For Lajhar, though, the story remains rooted in Brattleboro and in the memory of a father he never really knew, but whose path on a soccer field he has now made his own.
