Who is Jamal Al-Salami, the new Jordanian national team coach, and what are his most notable achievements?

The Jordanian Football Association suddenly decided to appoint Moroccan coach Jamal Al-Salami as the new technical director of the first national team, to lead “Al-Nashama” in the upcoming matches.

Al-Salami will succeed his compatriot, Hussein Amouta, who broke his association with the Jordanian Football Association by mutual consent, as the latter announced last Saturday.

The Jordanian Federation will officially present the new coach for “Al-Nashama” before the end of this month, and the technical staff for Al-Salami will include assistant coaches Omar Najhi and Mustafa Al-Khalafy, goalkeeping coach Ahmed Mohamedina, fitness coaches Jawad Sabri and Karim Maloush, and performance analysts Karim Al-Idrissi and Marwan Lotfi.

Who is Jamal Al-Salami, the new Jordanian national team coach?

He is 53 years old. He is a professional Moroccan football coach and was one of the most prominent Moroccan midfielders in the 1990s.

Al-Salami is a graduate of the training school of the Casablanca Milk Association Club (later it became the Olympic Club of Casablanca). Al-Salami was a player among the golden generation of this team, which was able to win a group of titles at the beginning of the nineties at the level of the Moroccan Championship and the Throne Cup, and at the Arab level, when the team was sweeping Arab Cup Winners Cup competition.

After the merger of Olympique Casablanca with Raja Athletic Club, Salami established himself as one of the best defensive midfielders in Morocco, which qualified him to be one of the main pillars of the Moroccan national team that played in the 1998 World Cup finals, under the leadership of French coach Henri Michel.

Al-Salami had a successful professional experience in Turkey, with Besiktas Club, under the command of Welsh coach John Benjamin Toshack, for whom he played a total of 52 matches between 1998 and 2001.

Al-Salami concluded his career as a player in Morocco in 2004, after playing two seasons with Raja and two seasons with Moghreb Fez.

Al-Salami’s career in training

He began his coaching career with Raja, as coach of the youth team and then as assistant coach in the first team. He then moved to coach Ittihad Tawarka and then Hassania Agadir Club.

Al-Salami’s brilliance as a coach began with the new defense team, and after that he joined the quartet that coached the Moroccan national team between 2009 and 2010, accompanied by coaches Hussein Amouta, Hassan Moumen and Abdelghani Bennasri.

Between 2012 and 2014, he coached Fath Rabat, with whom he achieved runner-up in the 2011–12 Moroccan Football League Championship, which Moghreb Tetouan won.

Al-Salami then coached the clubs Hassania Agadir, Fath Sportive Club, and Difaa Hassani El Jadidi, then the Moroccan youth national team and Raja, before returning again to Fath Rabat, which he led to occupy seventh place in the Moroccan league last season.

Al-Salami’s most notable achievements

His achievements as a player for Olympique Casablanca: Moroccan Football League 1993-94.

Throne Cup: 1991–92.

Arab Cup-winning Club Championship: 1991, 1992, 1993.

- With Raja Athletic Club: Moroccan Football League 1995-96, 1996-97, and 1997-98.

Throne Cup: 1995–96.

CAF Champions League: 1997.

- With Turkish Besiktas: Ataturk Cup 2000.

Al-Salami’s achievements as a coach

 Raja Athletic Club: Moroccan Football League 2019-2020.

With the Moroccan local team: 2018 African Nations Championship.