TheLebanon national football team has used footballersborn outside Lebanon throughout its history with varying success. As a result of the dominance of clubs founded by theArmenian diaspora in Lebanon, between the 1940s and 1960s the national team heavily featured Lebanese players of Armenian origin. The established presence of Armenians in the team led theLebanese Football Association (LFA) tonaturalise several Armenian players born in Armenia during the 1990s to play internationally for Lebanon. Most notably,Vardan Ghazaryan was the national team's leading top goalscorer.
In preparation for the2000 AFC Asian Cup, the LFA naturalised fiveBrazilian-born players of Lebanese descent; their presence was generally not well received, as it was felt that they did not improve the level of the team. Lebanon were eliminated in the first round without registering a single win. At the2019 Asian Cup, nine of the 23 called-up players were born outside Lebanon; contrary to 2000, their inclusion was seen positively.
Following theArmenian genocide in 1915, many Armenians emigrated to Lebanon; as of 2021, Lebanon was home to the eighth-largestArmenian diaspora in the world.[1] Between the 1940s and 1960s, clubs founded by the Armenian diaspora, such asHomenetmen andHomenmen, dominated in Lebanese domestic football; during this period many Lebanese players of Armenian origin played for theLebanon national team.[2]
After Homenetmen and Homenmen were relegated to the lower divisions in the early 2000s, the Armenian presence in the national team fell.[2] Since 2006, no Lebanese of Armenian origin has featured for the national team, with the last Armenian player to represent "the Cedars" beingAgop Donabidian.[2]
With over six million people worldwide having Lebanese descent, compared to the four million Lebanese living in Lebanon, the LFA sought to take advantage of the sizeableLebanese diaspora to improvefootball in Lebanon.[9][7] Despite the positive impact of the Lebanese diaspora in various sports – such asbasketball,tennis andrugby – football did not initially benefit in the same way.[10]
In Lebanon's first participation at theAFC Asian Cup in2000, which they hosted, they called up fiveBrazilian players of Lebanese heritage:Luís Fernandes,Gilberto,Jadir Morgenstern,Marcílio andNewton.[9] According to Jamal Taha, Lebanon'scaptain at the tournament, there was no communication between the local players and the naturalised players due to thelanguage barrier.[11] Lebanon were eventually knocked out in the first round, without winning a single match.[10]
The general sentiment regarding the Brazilian players was that they did not improve the level of the national team,[10] and were in fact "harmful" due to the lack of integration with the other players.[11]
At the2019 Asian Cup, Lebanon's second participation, nine of the 23 players called up were born outside Lebanon.[9] Compared to the 2000 Asian Cup, the addition of foreign-born players of Lebanese descent was well received:Hassan Maatouk, captain of the national team, stated: "It's a good thing for us that we have some players from outside the country that can come and help us."[9] Several players born outside Lebanon communicated with their teammates inEnglish.[9]
Lebanon continued the trend of calling up players born abroad during the2022 FIFA World Cup qualification campaign, in which the team reached thefinal round of qualifying for the second time.[12] Wael Chehayeb of the LFA stated: "[People with Lebanese origins] give us more options when looking for players as we don't have a big population, and some of them have a European football education which is good for us."[12]
This is a list of football players who represented the Lebanon national football team in international football and were born outside Lebanon.[6]
The following players:
have played at least one game for the full (senior male) Lebanon national team; and
were born outside Lebanon.
This list includes players who havedual citizenship with Lebanon and/or have become naturalised Lebanese citizens. The players are ordered per modern-day country of birth; if the country at the time of birth differs from the current, this is indicated with a footnote.
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Germany
Australia
Brazil
Armenia
Sweden
Ivory Coast
Kuwait
Saudi Arabia
Sierra Leone
England
Liberia
Mexico
Venezuela
Bulgaria
Canada
Colombia
Denmark
Egypt
France
Iraq
Nigeria
Norway
Switzerland
Syria
Ukraine
United States
