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Prospective FIFA head Prince Ali is decendant of Prophet Muhammad

By Jonathan Bass

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Prospective FIFA head Prince Ali bin al-Hussein claims to be a descendant of the Prophet Mohammad.

As I write this blog FIFA is in the middle of voting for its next president. In one corner there’s Sepp Blatter, the 79-year-old incumbent who’s held his position for 17 years. In the other corner it’s Prince Ali bin al-Hussein from Jordan.

Prince Ali’s meteoric rise through the global soccer community is nothing short of impressive. In 1999, at just 24 years of age, he was named the head of the Jordan Football Association. Twelve years later and he would become FIFA Vice President from Asia. Now at age 39 he seeks to unseat a stalwart who is awash in a sea of controversy.

According to Prince Ali’s website, the Vice President has been instrumental in the development of Jordan’s women and youth leagues

"Prince Ali succeeded in bringing the youth team to the FIFA World Cup in 2007 in Canada as well as three Jordanian national teams to the Asian finals in 2010, for the first time – one of the few Asian countries to achieve that. Under his leadership, the Jordan National Women’s team has dramatically risen in the latest FIFA women’s world ranking. Prince Ali has also focused on invigorating Jordan’s youth teams and strengthening football community centers across the country to promote the unifying, educational and cultural values of football."

And yet, of all the accolades on his site (of which there are a ton), one little factoid stands out above the rest: Prince Ali is apparently a descendant of the Prophet Mohammad.

"His Royal Highness Prince Ali was born in Amman on December 23, 1975, to His Late Majesty King Hussein and Her Late Majesty Queen Alia. His Royal Highness is the forty-third generation direct descendant of the Prophet Mohammad (Peace Be upon Him)."

What does this have to do with FIFA or Sepp Blatter or voting or the world’s game? Couldn’t tell ya. But it’s pretty interesting, right? Not everyday you have the descendant from one of history’s holy prophets running for an office in sports (though I wouldn’t be surprised if Roger Goodell, after reading Angels and Demons, threw something on his byline about being from Jesus’s lineage). If you’re curious, Wikipedia has quite a few family trees for Muhammad. Pretty cool.

Quasi-related: I’m really hoping Prince Ali beats out Blatter. One, it’s a clean slate to potentially wipe away the bribery and general mafioso-like hierarchy of FIFA. And two, even the slightest possibility of dude making an entrance like Aladdin to every meeting, match, tournament is enough to garner my vote. Make way for Prince Ali!

EDIT: Welp … the dream is dead. Blatter won. See you in four years. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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