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What India can learn from Jordan’s journey to the 2026 FIFA World Cup

Today, as Jordan gets ready to face Austria, Algeria, and defending champions Argentina at the 2026 World Cup, India, ranked 139th, will once again be watching from the sidelines.

Jordan is making its FIFA World Cup debut this year. But the world’s 63rd–ranked men’s football team did not arrive here overnight. This moment is the payoff for a three-decade journey of blood, sweat, and persistence that lifted Jordan from the pits of footballing despair. And here’s a striking contrast: when Jordan was languishing at 152nd in 1996, India sat 40 places higher at 112th, having slipped 18 places from its all-time best ranking of 94 only five months earlier.

Today, as Jordan gets ready to face Austria, Algeria, and defending champions Argentina at the 2026 World Cup, India, ranked 139th, will once again be watching from the sidelines.

So what did Jordan do right to bring about this revolution? And what can Indian football learn from its journey? 

Same start, different ending

The road to the 2026 World Cup for Jordan did not begin with its current team. The country treated football as a long-term project rather than a series of short-term experiments. Jordan did not have the financial muscle of Saudi Arabia or Qatar, nor did it have a large population to draw talent........

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