Who is Al-Tamari, the “Jordanian Messi” who wants to give “the biggest surprise in the history of football”

TO Musa Al-Tamari they tell him “the Jordanian Messi“. This is the leader of Lthe Desert Warriors who have just made history. Let’s talk about the national football team. Jordana team that has never played in a World Cup, is number 87 in the FIFA rankings and has just reached the final. Asian Cupafter beating South Korea, a country with a great footballing tradition (so much so that it beat CR7’s Portugal in Qatar) which has already won the continental tournament twice.

It’s worth saying, no one (not even the toughest) gave a dime for Jordan. Or a euro. So much so that in bets he paid almost five times more than his rival. A Jordanian victory earned 7 euros, a draw 4 and the Koreans, who were the main candidates for the final, lost just 1.53.

But the Desert Warriors blew up the Alman-bin-Ali stadium in Qatar in front of 40,000 fans who made themselves heard. Even if his biggest topic is football and it starts from the feet of his Jordanian Messi, Musa Al-Tamari.

Al-Tamari tries to make football history. And he’s already writing it. He was born in Amman, Jordan’s most popular city which mixes ruins and modern buildings, and is the first player from his country to set foot in one of Europe’s five major leagues.

Born in June 1997, he made his debut at 19 in Shabab Al-Ordon, then moved to AL-Jazeera and in 2018 to APOEL in Cyprus. He was champion of the First Division and the Super Cup, as well as MVP. That’s where the Jordanian Messi was born. And pop over to Oh Leuven. One season and he finally arrives at Montepellier in the French Ligue 1.

“I like one-on-one and I’m quick with the ball,” he says and it shows. Like Messi, Al-Tamari usually starts from the right and faces the center of the pitch with his most skilled leg, his left foot. And he was in that area this Wednesday, in the semi-final between Jordan and South Korea, when, in the 8th minute, he cut down a pass and allowed Yazan Al-Naimat (the other figure of the team playing in Qatar) to score 1-0. .

If the comparison with the Argentine number 10 seems exaggerated, Al-Tamari is on track to become for Jordan what Salah means for Egypt. Of course, in the semi-final of the Asian Cup he scored a great goal “like Messi”.

You just need to have eyes and memory to remember some of the two or three hundred goals that Leo scored in that way: starting from the wing, dribbling, throwing the diagonal (sometimes horizontal) towards the crescent and scoring. This was the great goal in the 2-0 win against South Korea which sealed the historic passage to the Asian Cup final, this Saturday against Qatar.

At that point the madness of the Jordanians in the stands was total: “Here, in Jordan, he is a celebrity, because he raised Jordanian football to levels we didn’t have before,” a young man named Asid told Marca.

“If we won the Cup, it would be one of the biggest surprises in the history of football,” added another fan, Ahmad Husami. “It’s as if Albania had won the European Championships,” they say.

Al-Tamari points to history

Jordan 10 was tempted by Arab petrodollars. But she had another wish: “Ever since I was a kid I wanted to play in one of the five major leagues., but my mother wanted me to concentrate on my studies. It’s not that she didn’t believe in me, but she told me that it would be difficult to realize my dream in Jordan,” she said after her arrival in Ligue 1.

Now that he has achieved his goal, Al-Tamari is not satisfied and aims for more: “I know that in my country they are proud of me, but being the first Jordanian to play in France is not the goal… I want more , I have to prove that I can play at this level and Montpellier is the perfect club.

Despite his talent, he had no problem when asked to play three.

Before concluding these lines, one thing must be noted: “I don’t like being called the Jordanian Messi,” warns Al-Tamari, who wants to write his story. And he’s doing it.