Jordan's World Cup debut: From Redknapp to Messi

When Jordan faces world champions Argentina in their final group match on 27 June, it may feel like their own World Cup final. But the occasion will also mark the culmination of decades of dreams, changing strategies, near misses, and surprising managerial appointments—including two English football stalwarts.

Jordan are one of four nations making their debut at the 2026 World Cup. The country is passionate about football but has lacked success on the global stage. Their tournament begins against Austria on Wednesday (05:00 BST, live on the BBC) and could culminate against Lionel Messi's Argentina, unless they cause a surprise by reaching the knockout stage.

A long road to the World Cup

This first appearance on football's biggest stage has been a long time coming. "In my childhood, I was brought up with the fact that Jordan is a home of football talent," Mustafa Arqawi, former communications director for the Jordan Football Association, told BBC Sport. "It was talent that I used to see every day in schoolyards, alleyways and streets. Like almost every Jordanian citizen, I grew up with an unequivocal passion and a dream for our national team to compete at the top level."

After gaining independence from the United Kingdom following World War Two, Jordan played their first international football match in 1953—a 3-1 defeat to Syria. However, they did not enter World Cup qualifying until attempting to reach the 1986 tournament. They beat Qatar 1-0 at home for their first qualifying win but lost their other three matches and missed out.

Near miss in 2014

Until this year, the closest Jordan came to qualifying for the World Cup finals was in 2014. They fought their way through the byzantine Asian Football Confederation system, including two group stages, with notable home wins against Japan and Australia. Jordan reached the inter-confederation play-off against Uruguay, with the winner going to Brazil 2014. But it was no contest, as a Uruguay side featuring Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani swept to a 5-0 aggregate win. Jordan played 20 matches in 2014 World Cup qualifying, all for naught.

What this adventure did, however, was put Jordan on the global football map and allowed them to attract some notable coaching names. In September 2014, the Jordan Football Association (JFA) prepared for 2018 World Cup qualifying by hiring former England captain Ray Wilkins as manager.

English coaches and a strategic shift

Wilkins led Jordan to the 2015 Asian Cup, but following an exit at the group stage he was lured away by the offer of becoming Aston Villa assistant manager under Tim Sherwood. This sparked a period of turmoil, as Jordan went through three managers in less than a year and failed to even emulate their close call of 2014. The last of the appointments was that of Harry Redknapp, parachuted in for the final two matches of the second-round group stage, with only the winner progressing to the next round. The second game was Australia away—a winner-takes-all clash. Jordan lost 5-1, and Redknapp's time in charge ended after two games.

Hiring Wilkins and Redknapp as coaches was the brainchild of former JFA president, Prince Ali Bin al-Hussein, who challenged Sepp Blatter for the Fifa presidency in 2015. But the failure led to a rethink in the JFA, and instigated an approach based less on eye-catching names and more on long-term strategy and culture. Since Redknapp, Jordan have had seven managers—six of them have been from predominantly Arabic nations, with two from Jordan itself.

"I basically witnessed a strategic goal evolving from blueprints on drawing board into a tangible result," said Arqawi. "I observed top level talent management, and operational optimisation. It was a transformation built on lean management and restructuring of priorities and resources. In a nutshell, I witnessed how everything that had been right for many years needed just to be fine-tuned and arranged into its ideal form to achieve its full potential."