Gianni Infantino has run FIFA since 2016, presiding over an era that has included three men’s World Cups, two Women’s World Cups, and the new Club World Cup in 2025. He is one of the most photographed and recognizable figures in global sport, rarely far from a camera or a head of state.
At the same time, his wife is almost entirely unknown to the public, and she appears to prefer it that way.
Leena Al Ashqar has spent more than two decades as the partner of the most powerful administrator in football without giving a single interview or maintaining any public social media presence. Here is what is known about her.
She worked for the Lebanese Football Federation.
Al Ashqar is of Lebanese heritage and previously worked in administrative and event planning roles for the Lebanese Football Federation. It was through their overlapping work in soccer’s governing structures that she and Infantino met, although the exact year is unknown. The couple married in 2001.
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Al Ashqar and Infantino at the 2023 Taormina Film Festival.
Infantino became a Lebanese citizen in February 2026, having begun the process the previous November following a meeting with the president of Lebanon and the Lebanese Football Association. Born in Switzerland, he had previously held both Swiss and Italian citizenship, the latter through his parents, who immigrated from Calabria and Lombardy.
The couple has four daughters.
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The couple at the wedding of Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant in Mumbai in July 2024.
Al Ashqar and Infantino have four daughters: Shania Serena, Alessia, Dhalia Nora, and Sabrina. One of the few personal details that has surfaced publicly about the family came during the 2018 World Cup in Russia, when their youngest daughter, Dhalia Nora, reportedly required emergency surgery for appendicitis. Al Ashqar and Infantino were together at the hospital in St. Petersburg with Dhalia Nora at the time, and said to have been grateful for the care provided for her.
The family has moved frequently in recent years.
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Infantino and Al Ashqar in Miami in April.
The Infantinos have many properties around the world, in some of the most affluent zip codes on Earth. It made headlines when they relocated to Doha, Qatar, around 2021. Two of the children were said to have attended school there while the residence served as a base ahead of and during the 2022 World Cup.
Infantino moved his official residency to Zug, Switzerland in 2022, where FIFA also reportedly covers the rent on the property. The Swiss media described the location as a more “tax-friendly canton” that also overlooks the lake.
More recent reports noted the FIFA boss acquired property near Miami, which some have connected to Infantino’s presence in the United States during the 2026 World Cup.
She maintains a much more private profile compared to her husband.
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The couple with President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump at the Club World Cup Final in July 2025.
Al Ashqar does appear occasionally at major FIFA events. She attended the 2026 World Cup draw at the Kennedy Center in Washington in 2025, for example, and was photographed at the FIFA Club World Cup final in New Jersey in the previous July.
Beyond those appearances, she has kept almost entirely out of public view, with no social media accounts and no record of any media interviews in more than two decades. For a man who has described FIFA as “the official happiness provider to humanity” and rarely declines a spotlight, the contrast is notable.
Rachel King (she/her) is a news writer at Town & Country. Before joining T&C, she spent nearly a decade as an editor at Fortune. Her work covering travel and lifestyle has appeared in Forbes, Observer, Robb Report, Cruise Critic, and Cool Hunting, among others. Originally from San Francisco, she lives in New York with her wife, their daughter, and a precocious labradoodle. Follow her on Instagram at @rk.passport.