Over the past four decades, Michael Lahoud has already lived in Virginia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida, and Texas, and today, he’s relishing his new surroundings in Connecticut with his wife and infant daughter. But it was in Freetown, Sierra Leone, where Lahoud’s story began. Whilst his parents left Sierra Leone when he was three years old in order to escape a bloody civil war, Lahoud would have to wait three years before joining them. When his family was the only one in his town to win an emergency VISA, Lahoud’s grandmother whisked him away from school and into their class, whilst his uncle drove him to the port, only to be prohibited from entering the boat with his nephew due to not having a VISA.
At six years of age, Lahoud was forced to undergo a harrowing journey all by himself. He took a flight from Freetown to Paris before flying from Parris to Washington D.C., where he started a new life for himself alongside his parents in Northern Virginia. “I kind of had this feeling of longing in my stomach to see my parents again,” stated Lahoud in an exclusive Joy News interview. “They both left when I was really young, and I didn’t know it at the time, but they were leaving because they were hearing about a potential civil war.”
“I probably felt a deeper connection to my grandparents just because they were there in my super formative years of my life more than my parents were. It took a bit of time to reestablish that connection when I moved to the United States, and it’s probably been more in my adulthood, as I’ve learned to become an adult, bringing our first child Layla into the world in August with my wife, that I have gained an appreciation for their sacrifice and a deeper connection to them in ways I could have never as a 6-year-old just moving to this country. It was starting life all over again at six years old and re-establishing that child-parent connection in ways I could never have dreamt of for our daughter to go through.”
Lahoud grew up in the D.C. suburbs and started playing for Wilbert Tucker Woodson High School, before making the move south to North Carolina and joining Wake Forest University, where he scored 14 goals and 20 assists in 95 appearances and leading the Demon Deacons to their only NCAA National Championship in 2007. It wasn’t long before the nation’s top college soccer pundits like Dave Johnson and Glenn Davis were talking about Lahoud as a potential MLS star, and eventually, those dreams came to fruition after he was drafted by Chivas USA with the ninth overall pick of the 2009 MLS SuperDraft.
He enjoyed an impressive start to his professional career in Southern California and emerged as a key figure in central midfield, scoring 5 goals and 6 assists in 74 appearances before being traded to the Philadelphia Union in exchange for Danny Califf on May 17, 2012. Lahoud enjoyed a seamless transition to life in the City of Brotherly Love, making 65 appearances in total, and watching from across the country as his former side went extinct. But whereas Chivas USA are a relic of the past, Philadelphia are establishing themselves as one of the top teams in MLS. After securing their first-ever trophy in their decade-long history with the 2020 Supporters’ Shield, Philadelphia reached their maiden MLS Cup Final in 2022 only to lose on penalties to LAFC. And after finishing with the best regular season record and securing a second Supporters’ Shield, Philly find themselves two games away from another MLS Cup appearance. If they beat New York City, they will face either Inter Miami or FC Cincinnati.
“It’s fun to talk about them now versus when I played, but it gives me a sense of pride watching the Philadelphia Union, because I know how hard everyone on that staff and front office works to make the team relevant, and Philadelphia is becoming title own. You got the Super Bowl champions, and if Joel Embiid ever wants to play basketball, rather than sit in the bleachers, they could have an NBA title-winning team, and they have a damn good soccer team. It’s amazing what happens when you get a sense of direction. “When I was there, Nick Sakiewicz was the president and more or less the sporting director. We didn’t really have the right infrastructure to give us the right recruitment, to give us the right direction, to give us the right goals. Who are we? What’s our focus?”
“All of that was still being built, and I give a lot of credit to someone like Earnie Stewart, who came in and said, ‘We’re gonna make the core of this team about getting young players from the area, and we’re gonna be really particular about making sure when we bring in recruits, they get them to stick. Think of the players they’ve gotten to change. Jameer Montero, his first couple seasons was a home run. Daniel Gazdag the last couple seasons, it’s unfortunate that he’s not there anymore. Home run! Pascal Chimbonda, his first couple seasons, was a home run, and even Sergio Santos. We haven’t seen Sergio Santos perform as he has for Philadelphia since he’s moved to Cincinnati. I think if you’re gonna replace Jim Curtin, you gotta get it even more right. I’m a big Bradley Carnell fan. I think he completely gets the city, he gets the club, and he’s the right manager to take the team with what’s missing. They need a trophy. That’s the only thing that’s missing.”
Lahoud didn’t just become a vital presence in central midfield for Philly during his time there – he also became a senior international. He returned to Freetown after two decades and made his Sierra Leone debut on September 7, 2013, coming off the bench in a 3-2 win vs. Equatorial Guinea in World Cup qualifying, before returning to the squad eight months later and playing the full 90 in two AFCON qualifiers vs. Swaziland. And on September 6, 2014, Lahoud played 43 minutes in a 2-1 loss to the Ivory Coast in AFCON qualifying. Little did he know it, but this would be the fourth and final appearance of his Sierra Leone career.
He cut his MLS chapter short in January 2016 after joining NASL side New York Cosmos, only for his loan to be cut short after four months after being sold to NASL side Miami FC for a reported $300,000. Two years later, he was on the move yet again, joining USL side FC Cincinnati on April 18, 2018. After a few months in Ohio, Lahoud made the move to Texas and played for San Antonio FC before deciding to hang up his boots during the COVID-19 pandemic, starting off as an assistant coach for Trinity University before eventually deciding to try a new role as a soccer commentator for expansion MLS team Austin FC and work alongside veteran announcer Adrian Healy, where he was able to analyze key figures like Emmanuel Reynoso, Adam Buksa, and Alexander Ring and help chart their rise.
“It is one of the joys in my early broadcasting career to have been part of that, and I couldn’t have learned from a better mentor and a better friend than Adrian Healy. Timing is everything, and to watch how a legend of the broadcasting industry who, in my opinion, doesn’t get enough respect in this country for what he’s done in terms of the biggest games and the biggest competitions in his career, watching how he was a student of the game had such an impact on me. 2022 was a lightning-in-the-bottle moment for Austin FC where they got a player of Sebastián Driussi’s ilk the season before, a player who was entering his prime for a UEFA Champions League squad and who decided to come play in Austin, Texas for an expansion team that needed something to believe in. The goal calls, the road trips, the fans, the late nights, the celebrations…it’s one of the greatest memories I’ve had and I look back on it fondly. Looking at where the club is now, they went through some rough patches, not gonna lie, after that, but they’ve overcome by reaching the U.S. Open Cup Final and the playoffs.”
Lahoud departed Texas for Connecticut in October 2023, joining Paramount on a full-time deal. Alongside Thierry Henry, Jamie Carragher, Clint Dempsey and more, he’s yet another former football player who’s now making a name for himself as a pundit for CBS Sports Golazo Network.