By Andrew Warshaw
September 3 – Although he is mainly known in football politics for being Asia’s FIFA vice-president and one of the game’s renowned modernists, Prince Ali Bin Al-Hussein is also head of Jordanian football and in an attempt to boost his country’s profile has turned to one of England’s most familiar faces to be its next national coach.
Prince Ali has gone for 57-year-old former England midfielder Ray Wilkins, who has been on the coaching staff of no fewer than five London clubs as well the England under-21 side.
Wilkins, a frequent media pundit between jobs, has never quite reached the coaching heights of many of his colleagues but has considerable knowledge of the game and has been given five months to fine-tune Jordan’s national team. He most recently worked as assistant head coach at Fulham last season under former manager Rene Meulensteen but lasted less than two months before leaving when Felix Magath arrived.
The Jordan Football Association announced he will be assisted by former Arsenal and Republic of Ireland forward Frank Stapleton.
Wilkins will take charge of the team after their friendlies against Uzbekistan today and China next week. His first match in charge will be against Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur on October 11.
Crucially, he will lead Jordan at the 2015 AFC Asian Cup in Australia where they are in the same group as Japan, Iraq and Palestine.
Currently ranked 56th in the world, sandwiched between Finland and South Korea, Jordanian football is on the up and the squad only missed out on their first ever World Cup finals appearance when they lost a playoff to Uruguay, albeit 5-0 on aggregate.
Wilkins, who won 84 caps for England, said: “It’s only for five months, it’s not a long-term thing, it’s just until we get the Asian Cup over with. They’ve reached the quarter-finals on the last two occasions, so let’s hope we can go a couple better.
“I won’t be seeking any advice, we’ll just get out there and we’re going to crack on. We’re going to train the guys to try and get to a little bit of a better fitness level.”
Wilkins admitted a successful Asian Cup campaign could persuade him to continue in the role and lead the team into the 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign.
“If we were to be successful – and please God we are – then I would certainly have to look at it, but I would have to look at my family situation as well.”
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