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AMMAN — With Jordan heading into a long break for Independence Day and Eid Al Adha holidays, celebrations and national pride are in high gear as the national football team regrouped Thursday starting the countdown for the 2026 World Cup - the biggest sporting event of the game.
Stars playing abroad who have ended club duty have started to converge home to join teammates in their final phase of preparations for the World Cup opening on June 11 in Canada, the US and Mexico.
Currently World 63rd Jordan, whose squad is dubbed “Al Nashama’, will leave home May 28 to play Switzerland on May 31 and Columbia on June 7 in two friendlies ahead of the World Cup Group J matches kicking off June 17 against soccer greats and reigning world champions Argentina ranked FIFA 3rd, Algeria 28th and Austria 24th.
Jordan’s Moroccan Coach Jamal Sellami announced the lineup that will be finalized next week dropping four more players by May 30. Faced with the absences of key players including star striker Yazan Nue’imat and Adham Qurashi, both recuperating from ACL surgery, Mousa Ta’mari, Yazan Al Arab and Ali Alwan, lead the pack together with the return of team captain Ehsan Haddad who has been out for the season. Others on the latest injury list include Isam Smeiri, who excelled in the Arab Cup as well as Tamer Bani Odeh who plays in the UK.
Other key absentees not recalled include Yousef Abu Jalboush 'Sisa', whose team Hussein captured the League, Cup and Super Cup; Baha’a Faisal who made a return to the squad after over 4 years of absence in the March regroup, as well as Jordan league top scorer Faisali’s Ahmad Ersan, among others. Sellami opted for younger players like Ibrahim Sabra, Ali Azaizeh, Odeh Fakhoury, Mohammad Abu Gosh and Yousef Qashi teaming up with Mohammad Abu Zreiq ‘Sharara’ as the average age of the national team has been significantly reduced to include a younger lineup to serve the team for the future.
Despite the difficulty of Jordan’s group, Sellami, a World Cup player with Morocco at France 1998, believes his side are capable of making a strong impression. In an exclusive interview with FIFA, the Jordan coach reflected on the emotions of qualification. He noted, although as a coach he was part of the accomplishment in this historic achievement, he undlerined “my feelings were relief and happiness .. I got the national team and the Jordanian people to feel pride and turning this dream to a reality.”
FIFA further quoted Sellami “Participating in the World Cup is a major accomplishment in itself. It's an opportunity for any player, for any coach, and for any country, to show their personality, culture and ambition. Being at the World Cup is an opportunity for us to show that we qualified from Asia, and that we deserve to showcase Jordanian football.”
In the past few months in their World Cup preparations agenda, Jordan held Nigeria and Costa Rica 2-2 friendlies in March. Earlier, they held Russia 0-0, beat the Dominican Republic 3-0, lost 1-0 to Bolivia and 4-2 to Albania, held Mali 0-0, and lost to 7-time World Cup qualifiers Tunisia 3-2.
Since 1986, Jordan participated in the World Cup qualifiers 7 times. They nearly qualified to the 2014 World Cup and played then FIFA 6th ranked Uruguay in an intercontinental qualifying tie before exiting. Round 3 was the furthest they reached in earlier editions.
At look back at Jordan’s past achievements saw their best ever FIFA ranking was 37th in 2004 after advancing to the Asian Cup quarterfinals and losing to eventual champs Japan. Jordan’s World Cup qualification seems to have started with the 2023 Asian Cup, when the team reached the final before losing to hosts Qatar. In December 2025, Jordan finished runner-up to eventual champions Morocco at the 2025 FIFA Arab Cup, despite missing many key players on the injury list or club duty. By finishing runner-up at the 2023 Asian Cup, followed by a historic first-time qualification to the 2026 edition of the World Cup, Jordan booked their spot in the next edition of the 2027 Asian Cup a well.
