Samir Ahmed Ayass ( ar, سمير أحمد أياس, ; bg, Самир Ахмед Аяс; born 24 December 1990) is a 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 ...

who plays as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. Coming through the youth system, Ayass began his senior career in 2008 at hometown club

CSKA Sofia CSKA Sofia ( bg, ЦСКА София) 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 Sport ...

, 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 ( bg, ФК Миньор) is a football club in Pernik, Bulgaria, that competes 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 ...

Bansko Bansko ( bg, Банско ) is a town in southwestern Bulgaria, located at the foot of the Pirin Mountains at an elevation of 1200m above sea level. It is a ski resort. Legends There are several legends about who founded Bansko. According to o ...

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columb ...

Lyubimets Lyubimets ( bg, Любимец ) 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 has a population of 7,670 inhabitants.

, and

Beroe Stara Zagora Beroe ( bg, Берое) is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Stara Zagora, that competes in the First League, the top division of the Bulgarian football league system. The club was founded in 1916 under the name ''Vere ...

, before returning to CSKA Sofia in 2015, winning the

Bulgarian Cup The Bulgarian Cup ( bg, Купа на България, Kupa na Bulgaria) 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 tournamen ...

. The following year he joined

Dunav Ruse FC Dunav ( bg, Дунав, 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 o ...

, 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 association football, football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). Al Ahed FC, Al-Ahed won the title for the first time, defeating 4.25 SC, ...

, 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 ( bg, Ботев) is a Bulgarian professional football club based in Vratsa, that competes in the First League, the top division of Bulgarian football. The club was founded in 1921. Since 1948, Botev have played their home games at St ...

, and then joined Malaysian side Perak. Born in

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

, 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 was the 17th edition of the AFC Asian Cup, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Asia organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). It was held in the United Arab Emirates from 5 January to 1 F ...

for the first time through qualification, playing in the final tournament.

Early life

Samir Ayass was born in

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and h ...

, Bulgaria to a Lebanese father and a Bulgarian mother. He started his playing career at

at the age of six.

Club career

Dunav Ruse

On 6 October 2016, Ayass signed a one-and-a-half-year contract with

. He scored his first goal for the team on 9 April 2017, in a 1–0 win over champions Ludogorets Razgrad.

Ahed

On 4 August 2017, Ayass signed a two year contract with

Lebanese Premier League The Lebanese First Division ( ar, الدوري اللبناني الدرجة الأولى), commonly known as the Lebanese Premier League (), is the top division of the Lebanese football league system. There are 12 teams competing in the league, ...

champions Ahed for an undisclosed fee. He returned to

in Bulgaria on 11 July 2019.

Persiraja

On 17 February 2020, Ayass moved to newly promoted Indonesian Liga 1 side Persiraja. Following the cancellation of the 2020 season due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, Ayass was released. He re-joined in March 2021 on trial ahead of the 2021 season.

Botev Vratsa

On 3 April 2021, Ayass returned to Bulgaria, joining

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. Ayass helped Botev avoid relegation.

Perak

On 19 June 2021, Ayass moved to Perak in the

Malaysia Super League The Malaysia Super League ( ms, Liga Super Malaysia) is the men's top professional football division of the Malaysian football league system. Administered by the Football Malaysia Limited Liability Partnership (FMLLP), now known as the Malays ...

. 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 ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to Lebanon–Syria border, the north and east and Israel to Blue ...

through his father, on 20 March 2017 he accepted the call up for Lebanon for the match against

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

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 Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...

, in a 5–0 home win at the Asian Cup qualifications. In December 2018, he was called up for the

squad, featuring in two group stage games.

Style of play

Ayass is a technical

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 *

: 2015–16 Ahed * AFC Cup:

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

: 2017–18, 2018–19 *

Lebanese FA Cup The Lebanon Cup (), commonly known as the Lebanese FA Cup, is a Lebanese football annual cup competition. The first edition, held in 1937, was won by Nahda. The most successful club in the competition is Ansar with 15 titles, followed by Nejmeh ...