The Jordan national football team (Arabic: المنتخب الأردني لكرة القدم) represents Jordan in international football and is controlled by the Jordan Football Association. Jordan have never qualified for the World Cup finals but have appeared five times in the Asian Cup and reached the final match of a major tournament for the first time in the 2023 edition, finishing as runners-up for the first time.
Jordan is a two-time champion of the Arab Games, in 1997 and 1999. They have reached the WAFF Championship final on three occasions but have never won it. Jordan have hosted the WAFF Championship three times, in 2000, 2007, and 2010; the Arab Cup once, in 1988; and the Arab Games once, in 1999.
History
Early history (1953–1997)
The Jordanian national football team's first international match was played in 1953 in Egypt where the team were defeated by Syria 3–1. The first FIFA World Cup qualifiers Jordan took part in was the 1986 qualifiers, they are yet to qualify to the FIFA World Cup.
Development era (1997–2007)
The Jordanian football coach, Mohammad Awad, to attain achievements for the Jordan national team between 1992 and 1999 when he helped his country Jordan win both tournaments of the Arab Games, starting in 1997 in Beirut, and 1999 in Amman.
The Jordan national football team had begun making more improvements under the Serbian head coach Branko Smiljanić who had helped Jordan attain greater match results in the first round of the 2002 FIFA World Cup qualifiers but failed to help Jordan qualify for the next round. Brapanko also helped Jordan reach the semi-finals of the 2002 Arab Cup and got Jordan to win the fourth place in the 2000 West Asian Football Federation Championship and the second place in the 2004 edition in Syria but failed to help Jordan win these tournaments. After he resigned from coaching Jordan, the Egyptian Mahmoud El-Gohary agreed to take Branko's place as head coach.
Under the leadership of El-Gohary, the Jordan national team was able to qualify for their first AFC Asian Cup tournament, in China 2004, and helped Jordan reach the quarter-finals of the tournament but failed to qualify for the semi-finals after losing to Japan in a penalty shoot-out after the match had ended with extra time in a 1–1 draw. But thanks to El-Gohary, the Jordan team reached its highest FIFA world ranking which was the 37th place in 2004. Just like Serbian Branko, El-Gohary also helped Jordan achieve greater match results in the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifications during Jordan's first round but also failed to help Jordan qualify.
In the WAFF championship tournaments of 2004 and 2007, El-Gohary helped Jordan win the third place in 2004 and helped Jordan reach the semi-finals in 2007. After coaching Jordan for five out of six matches in the 2007 AFC Asian Cup qualification, El-Gohary retired as a football coach, and the Jordan Football Association hired the Portuguese Nelo Vingada to take over as the head coach of Jordan but was not able to help Jordan qualify for the 2007 AFC Asian Cup.
After getting off to a start by not winning the first two matches of the six, Vingada was sacked by the Jordan Football Association and replaced by the Iraqi Adnan Hamad, a coach in Asia known for his successes with his national team in Iraq as head coach as well as Iraq U-23 and other Iraq youth teams and clubs. His first experiences with Jordanian football players took place as he was coaching Jordanian football club, Al-Faisaly from 2006 to 2008 and achieved specific results with that team as well. After helping Jordan qualify for their second Asian Cup tournament in the 2011 AFC Asian Cup, Hamad began shouting 'Allahu Akbar' for the Jordan national team in September 2010 when they had the 2010 West Asian Football Federation Championship hosted in the country of Jordan.
Hamad prepared for that tournament with a couple of friendlies as well as three more to prepare for the AFC Asian Cup tournament in Qatar. Just like Mahmoud El-Gohary, Hamad also helped Jordan qualify for the quarter-finals in the 2011 AFC Asian Cup but failed to progress to the semi-finals as they were defeated by Uzbekistan 2–1. Hamad was also got Jordan to win second place in the 2011 Arab Games in Qatar. Hamad helped Jordan finish third in the final round of Asian group qualifying for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
Hamad was then replaced ahead of the final stages with the Egyptian Hossam Hassan leading them to the play-off round against Uzbekistan to determine the AFC participant in the inter-confederation play-offs. The games took place on 13 and 20 September 2013. With the two teams still evenly matched at full-time in the second leg, Jordan eventually progressed to the intercontinental playoff after winning 9–8 on penalties. The Jordanians missed their very first FIFA World Cup debut after losing 5–0 against Uruguay, before the goalless draw from the second leg. Hassan then also helped Jordan to qualify to the 2015 AFC Asian Cup.
On 3 September 2014, Ray Wilkins was appointed as the new head coach of Jordan. Wilkins led Jordan at the 2015 AFC Asian Cup where they were eliminated in group-stages for the first time after two losses against Iraq and Japan and a win over Palestine.
Stagnation (2015–2023)
Jordan's performance remained in certain stagnation when Jordan could not make it to the final round of the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification, losing 0–1 to Kyrgyzstan and 1–5 to Australia. After that, Jordan would qualify for 2019 AFC Asian Cup where Jordan defeated Australia (1–0) and Syria (2–0) and a goalless draw against Palestine in the group stage becoming the first team in the tournament to reach the Round of 16. However, they were stunned by Vietnam losing via a penalty shootout (2–4).
In June 2023, Hussein Ammouta was appointed as the Jordan national team coach.[7] In early 2024, he led his squad to their first ever Asian Cup final, defeating Iraq 3–2 by scoring two goals during the stoppage time, Tajikistan 1–0, and South Korea 2–0 during the knockout stages. In the final, Jordan lost 3–1 to the host nation Qatar, all scored through penalties.[8]
^"قائمة النشامى الأولية للنهائيات الآسيوية 🇯🇴" [Al-Nashama preliminary list for the Asian Finals 🇯🇴]. Twitter (in Arabic). Jordan Football Association. 20 December 2023. Archived from the original on 23 December 2023. Retrieved 23 December 2023.
17 (15 February 2024)[3][4]
Syria 3–1 Jordan 
Lebanon 6–0 Jordan 
Algeria 6–0 Jordan 
Iraq 7–1 Jordan 
China 6–0 Jordan 
Japan 6–0 Jordan 
Norway 6–0 Jordan 
