“We’re enjoying it immensely,” Fowler said.

The dominoes began to tumble years ago, when Jeff Moorad began orchestrating the purchase of the Padres from John Moores. Jabara, who knew Moorad, ended up with a minority interest in the team.

The connection continued when Fowler and late owner Peter Seidler acquired the franchise.

Fast forward to a Padres game a few years ago. One of Jabara’s sons loves soccer. They learned that Donovan, the U.S. star, would be in the owner’s suite at Petco Park.

In the suite, his son met the star and Jabara struck up a conversation.

“I told Landon we’d like to take a small interest in a club in Europe,” Jabara said. “We looked for two or three years, presentation after presentation. Most of them were distressed clubs that needed all kinds of fixing and help.”

That intrigued Donovan, who later shared that an intermediary in Tel Aviv pointed them toward Lincoln City. In December 2020, in the heart of the pandemic, Zoom conversations began.

They couldn’t visit the city, the stadium or the people involved.

“This just looked different,” Jabara said. “The quality of the people, the chairman, the CEO. The club had recently been promoted twice. It wasn’t distressed. It was having success.

“All this took place electronically. It got to the point where we said, ‘This is the one.’ We made the initial investment sight unseen.”

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