Report: Former Arsenal Football Player Joins Syria Jihad, Calls upon Westerners to Follow Suit

Two videos posted on the Internet on March 31, 2014, show a man wearing ski mask, preaching Westerners to join the Jihad in Syria. The videos were posted by a Russian Jihadi website, which claimed that the man is a former player for the English Premier League soccer team Arsenal of Portuguese origin. The website identified the man as "Abu Issa Al-Andalusi," who "grew up with Ronaldo, played for Arsenal, and [then] left football, money and the European way of life for the sake of Allah… He played for Arsenal in London, [but] realized that that [kind of] life was not for him, [so] he left everything and set out for jihad two years ago.”