Sea Eagles flier Jason Saab has revealed an ambition to honour his father and grandparents by representing Lebanon at Rugby League World Cup 2026.<\/p>\n
Saab, whose genetic father is Nigerian, was raised by his mother Alysia and stepfather Pierre, who introduced him to rugby league with Merrylands Rams and has been his biggest supporter as he progressed to the NRL ranks as a teenager.<\/p>\n
After marrying Alysia when Jason was just two years old, Pierre is the man Saab considers to be his father and the 25-year-old identifies with the Lebanese culture he grew up with.<\/p>\n
Having adopted Pierre\u2019s surname, Saab wants to play for the Cedars at RLWC2026 and is a member of the Michael Cheika-coached Lebanon team\u2019s chat group, which includes Wests Tigers stars Adam Doueihi and Alex Twal, Bulldogs back Jacob Kiraz and Eels halfback Mitchell Moses.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithout getting too far ahead of myself, that’s a serious option to play for Lebanon,\u201d Saab said. \u201cTo represent my dad and my grandparents, especially, who are the reason I play footy, would mean a lot to me.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love that side of my family \u2013 the Saab family – and that culture, so if the opportunity is there at the end of the season, if I\u2019m healthy and that’s an option, then I’ll definitely take it and I\u2019d be very proud to represent the Cedars.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saab, who is one of the fastest players in the NRL, was set to play for Lebanon under Cheika at the last World Cup in England in 2022, but injury ended his hopes.<\/p>\n
The Cedars haven\u2019t played a Test since and will rely on Australian-based players for their upcoming World Cup campaign, which kicks off against Papua New Guinea in Port Moresby on October 17 before back-to-back games at CommBank Stadium against Tonga on October 23 and France on November 1.<\/p>\n
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An application to International Rugby League for Saab to be cleared to play for Lebanon had been prepared and will now be submitted.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have been through the process four years ago and if I have the opportunity to play for Lebanon, I’ll be very, very grateful to do the Saab side of my family proud,\u201d said Saab, who represented the Prime Minister’s XIII in 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a very mixed cultural identity but that is the culture I identify with and I lean into,\u201d Saab said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was a bit younger, I thought maybe it didn’t feel right if I was taking another Lebanese player\u2019s spot, with my unique situation.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, the Lebanese community have taken me in and that’s the culture I really identify with, other than being Australian, so I am sure Lebanese supporters will be proud to call me their own.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saab\u2019s grandparents fled Lebanon during the civil war, which lasted from 1975 to 1990, and Pierre was born in Australia.<\/p>\n
A fanatical South Sydney supporter, who wore Rabbitohs colours to a meeting when then 16-year-old signed with St George Illawarra, Pierre took Jason to a training session when he was young and has supported his career ever since.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy grandfather was born in Lebanon and my grandmother as well. They moved over here because of the civil war, as the families of many Lebanese Australians did. My grandparents are Lebanese and my dad is a Lebanese Australian, he was born here,\u201d Saab explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy dad Pierre is the reason why I play rugby league. He’s a Souths fan, or he was a Souths fan – I actually don’t even know these days. He’s a me fan. Merrylands Rams is the red and green team so that’s where he took me because they wore Souths colours.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy dad’s been very influential in me playing footy, and obviously my mum is the reason I\u2019d go to footy training every night as a kid and all that stuff. They\u2019ve both done a lot, but it was probably my dad’s initiative to take me to rugby league and I know he\u2019d be proud to see me play for Lebanon.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sea Eagles flier Jason Saab has revealed an ambition to honour his father and grandparents by representing Lebanon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":380208,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-380207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}