{"id":390199,"date":"2026-07-29T05:37:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T05:37:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/390199\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T05:37:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T05:37:22","slug":"jordanian-athlete-who-went-missing-in-houston-found-safe-near-chicago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/390199\/","title":{"rendered":"Jordanian athlete who went missing in Houston found safe near Chicago"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rabe’e Ata Juma’a Alqaq, a 24-year-old athlete who was set to compete in a Houston soccer tournament called the Genuine Cup<\/a>,\u00a0took a bus to Illinois “of his own accord” and was found in the village of Bridgeview, the university wrote in a statement on Tuesday. No foul play is suspected, and the reason for Alqaq’s trip remains unknown, according to the university.<\/p>\n

Police will investigate what prompted the trip “if and when” Alqaq returns, university officials said.<\/p>\n

The Genuine Cup hosts athletes with intellectual disabilities and autism, and Alqaq has cerebral palsy, according to the Rice University Police Department. He contacted university police Tuesday morning after he saw news reports about his disappearance, according to Rice.<\/p>\n

Rice police worked with local authorities in Illinois, the Jordan Consulate of Texas and Alqaq’s soccer team to “confirm his wellbeing,” according to the university statement.<\/p>\n

“The department is also working with those partners to arrange his return to Houston,” the statement reads.<\/p>\n

A university spokesperson said no further information was available about the incident. The Genuine Cup did not immediately return a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Alqaq was staying on Rice University’s campus with his team from Jordan, and he was last seen at around midnight between Saturday and Sunday. The disappearance came after hours the team arrived for the tournament, which features more than 1,000 athletes<\/a> from 53 countries.<\/p>\n

A search through Houston followed, but authorities previously gave no indication that Alqaq could be across state lines. His coach and teammates said he was going for a walk before he vanished, according to Rice police.<\/p>\n

This is a developing story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rabe’e Ata Juma’a Alqaq, a 24-year-old athlete who was set to compete in a Houston soccer tournament called…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390200,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":["post-390199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390199\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}