{"id":33669,"date":"2026-06-15T02:21:39","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T02:21:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/15\/sweden-players-world-cup-debut-comes-vs-dads-home-country-tunisia\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T02:21:39","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T02:21:39","slug":"sweden-players-world-cup-debut-comes-vs-dads-home-country-tunisia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/15\/sweden-players-world-cup-debut-comes-vs-dads-home-country-tunisia\/","title":{"rendered":"Sweden player&#8217;s World Cup debut comes vs dad&#8217;s home country Tunisia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<p>Updated June 14, 2026, 10:13 p.m. ET<\/p>\n<div>\n<aside aria-label=\"advertisement\" class=\"gnt_x__c gnt_x__lbl gnt_x__bv\"\/>\n<aside aria-label=\"advertisement\" class=\"gnt_x__c gnt_x__bvd gnt_x__h\"\/>\n<aside class=\"gnt_em gnt_em__fp gnt_em_vp__tp gnt_em__el\" aria-label=\"Video - The reason for late-night World Cup matches\"\/>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">MONTERREY, Mexico &#8211; When <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/soccer\/worldcup\/2026\/06\/14\/sweden-tunisia-world-cup-prediction-analysis-odds\/90546420007\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Swedish<\/a> midfielder Yasin Ayari steps onto the field for his first-ever <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/sports\/soccer\/world-cup\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">2026 World Cup<\/a> game, it will be more than a debut on the game&#8217;s biggest stage for the 22-year-old. Ayari will be facing the other path that his international career could have taken.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Ayari and his Swedish teammates will take on Tunisia, the country where Ayari&#8217;s father was born and raised.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Tunisia&#8217;s manager Sabri Lamouchi, who is trying to lead his team out of the group stage for the first time in W<a href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/soccer\/wc\/standings\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">orld Cup history<\/a>, knows Ayari is a tough loss for his team.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">\u201cI know him and his brother,&#8221; Lamouchi said. &#8220;He made a choice, I have a lot of respect, and he&#8217;s a very good player. We wish him after the game best of luck, but that is after the game.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"gnt_ar_b_a__rb\" href=\"https:\/\/prf.hn\/click\/camref:1101l3wQsP\/pubref:USATWorldCup26\/destination:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.stubhub.com%2Fsweden-national-soccer-team-tickets%2Fperformer%2F727760\" data-v-afl=\"\" data-t-l=\"\u2691f:body nav - reviewed button|outbound links|buy now click|prf.hn\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\">Buy Sweden World Cup tickets!<\/a><\/p>\n<aside class=\"gnt_ar_b_sp\">NEWSLETTER: <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-t-l=\":body nav (wc-nl)|e|auto spike click:5|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_sp_a\" href=\"https:\/\/profile.usatoday.com\/newsletters\/world-cup-extra-time\/\">Sign up to get all the World Cup highlights in your inbox<\/a><\/aside>\n<p><a class=\"gnt_em gnt_em_gl gnt_em__el\" href=\"http:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/picture-gallery\/sports\/soccer\/worldcup\/2026\/06\/13\/world-cup-2026-best-photos\/90528304007\/\" data-t-l=\"\u2691g:l|l|c|view gallery:inline promo\" aria-label=\"View Gallery - Photos reveal unforgettable World Cup action and emotion\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img class=\"gnt_em_gl_i\" data-g-r=\"lazy\" data-gl-src=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/gcdn\/authoring\/authoring-images\/2026\/06\/14\/USAT\/90550364007-afp-2280957658.jpg?crop=8248,4641,x5,y130&amp;width=660&amp;height=372&amp;format=pjpg&amp;auto=webp\" data-gl-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/gcdn\/authoring\/authoring-images\/2026\/06\/14\/USAT\/90550364007-afp-2280957658.jpg?crop=8248,https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/4641,https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/x5,https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/y130&amp;width=1320&amp;height=744&amp;format=pjpg&amp;auto=webp 2x\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" width=\"660\" height=\"372\"\/><svg class=\"gnt_em_gl_i_svg\"><use xlink:href=\"#gnt_svg_camera\"\/><\/svg><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">In 2021, Tunisia\u2019s representatives approached Ayari with an offer to switch his allegiance and play for the African side in the 2022 World Cup. Ayari decided to stick with his birth country. His father, Azzouz Ayari, believed his son should pay back the country he was born in.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">\u201cMy son wanted to play for Tunisia, but I asked him to represent Sweden instead, as it is the country that welcomed and developed him,&#8221; Azzouz Ayari said in May in an interview with Aftonbladet. &#8220;It was his duty to give something back.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside aria-label=\"advertisement\" class=\"gnt_x__c gnt_x__lbl gnt_x__al\"\/>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">For Ayari, the choice made sense once he and his father discussed the possibilities.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">\u201cI was born in Sweden and feel Swedish, and Sweden is the country I want to represent,\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\"><em>Brooks Thomason is a student in the University of Georgia&#8217;s Carmical Sports Media Institute.<\/em><\/p>\n<aside class=\"gnt_em gnt_em_cp gnt_em_cp__sp\" aria-label=\"World Cup 2026\" data-c-cta=\"DIG DEEPER\">\n<div class=\"gnt_em_cp_cw\"><img class=\"gnt_em_cp_cw_i\" data-g-r=\"lazy\" data-gl-src=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/gcdn\/authoring\/authoring-images\/2026\/06\/09\/USAT\/90481408007-20260515-t-042820-z-598992251-up-1-em-5-f-0-cf-6-br-rtrmadp-3-soccerworldcupjpn.JPG?crop=5331,3998,x0,y0&amp;width=258&amp;height=193&amp;format=pjpg&amp;auto=webp\" data-gl-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/gcdn\/authoring\/authoring-images\/2026\/06\/09\/USAT\/90481408007-20260515-t-042820-z-598992251-up-1-em-5-f-0-cf-6-br-rtrmadp-3-soccerworldcupjpn.JPG?crop=5331,https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/3998,https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/x0,https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/y0&amp;width=516&amp;height=386&amp;format=pjpg&amp;auto=webp 2x\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\"\/><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<aside class=\"gnt_em gnt_em_fo__wc-standings-carousel gnt_em__lp\" aria-label=\"World Cup Standings Carousel\" data-g-r=\"lazy\" data-gl-type=\"comment\"><!--@pre<iframe class=gnt_em_fo_if src=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/tangfrag\/sports\/wc-standings-carousel\/?prm-embedded&prm-league=WC&prm-season=2026&prm-group=Group%20A\" loading=lazy sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox allow-forms\" title=\"World Cup Standings Carousel\"><\/iframe>--><\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Updated June 14, 2026, 10:13 p.m. ET MONTERREY, Mexico &#8211; When Swedish midfielder Yasin Ayari steps onto the field for<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33670,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_animmysite_disable_animation":false,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/gcdn\/authoring\/authoring-images\/2026\/06\/14\/USAT\/90548429007-2279085852.jpg?crop=5156,2901,x0,y268&width=3200&height=1801&format=pjpg&auto=webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[213],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending-sports-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}