Did You Know FIFA President Gianni Infantino Is Married to a Lebanese Woman?

The last thing I expected was finding out that Swiss-Italian FIFA President Gianni Infantino is married to a Lebanese woman. And the way I found out was the most Lebanese thing ever.

I was picking something up from a random ma7al khodra and ran into the owner’s wife who said her brother-in-law is none other than Gianni Infantino. At first, I thought she was joking…because what do you mean your sister’s married to the head of the FIFA organization? But it turned out to be true.

Anyway, the perfect opportunity to write content emerged, and here we are.

Who is Leena Al Ashqar?

Originally from Chouf, she tends to keep a very low profile, so there’s not much information about her. According to The Sun, she and Infantino met back in the early 2000s when she was working with the Lebanese Football Federation.

According to RT Arabic, she was invited to participate in a seminar for secretaries-general of Asian national federations, held in Neuchâtel in 1999 in collaboration with FIFA and UEFA. She was the only woman among the 27 participants at the conference.

Infantino, an Inter Milan supporter, was running the seminar as the secretary-general of the Center for Sports Studies at the University of Neuchâtel.

The couple married in 2001 and had four daughters together: Alessia, Sabrina, Shanïa Serena, and Dhalia Nora. She doesn’t make many public appearances, but she occasionally attends FIFA events and official gatherings alongside her husband.

Gianni Infantino went on to become FIFA president in February 2016, succeeding Sepp Blatter. Since then, he has played a pivotal role in overseeing major football events. This includes the 2018 World Cup in Russia and the controversial awarding of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar.

Did you enjoy reading about how the FIFA president is married to a Lebanese woman? There’s an entire section on our website dedicated to fun Lebanese facts you probably didn’t know about. Click here to check it out.

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