Jamal Khamis Taha ( ar, جمال خميس طه; born 23 November 1966) is a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

manager and former player who is the head coach of club Ansar. Nicknamed "the Brown Gazelle" (), Taha was born in Egypt to an

Egyptian Egyptian describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of years of ...

father and a Lebanese mother. He obtained Lebanese citizenship and represented the Lebanon national team between 1993 and 2000, whom he captained at the

2000 AFC Asian Cup The 2000 AFC Asian Cup was the 12th edition of the men's AFC Asian Cup, a quadrennial international association football, football tournament organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The finals were held in Lebanon between 12 and 29 O ...

Early life

Jamal Taha was born in

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

, Egypt, to an Egyptian father and a Lebanese mother; he obtained Lebanese citizenship through

naturalization Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the in ...

in 1992 via a presidential decree. Taha joined Ansar's youth team in 1977.

Club career

Nicknamed "the Brown Gazelle" (), Taha began his senior career with Ansar in 1986, where he ended his career in 2002. He wore the number 6 on his jersey, and was the club's captain from 1997 onwards.

International career

Taha was the

national team A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or a national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport. The term is most commonly associated with team sports, for exa ...

's captain during the

in Lebanon.

Managerial career

Ansar

Taha started out as Adnan Hamad's assistant manager at Ansar during the 2005–06 season; he helped his side win the domestic double (

Lebanese Premier League The Lebanese First Division ( ar, الدوري اللبناني الدرجة الأولى), commonly known as the Lebanese Premier League (), is the top division of the Lebanese football league system. There are 12 teams competing in the league, ...

and

Lebanese FA Cup The Lebanon Cup (), commonly known as the Lebanese FA Cup, is a Lebanese football annual cup competition. The first edition, held in 1937, was won by Nahda. The most successful club in the competition is Ansar with 15 titles, followed by Nejmeh ...

). The following season, in 2006–07, Taha was appointed first manager of Ansar, winning Ansar's second consecutive domestic double. He remained head coach until the end of the 2007–08 season, where he lost the league title to Ahed by one point. In July 2011, Taha was re-appointed manager of Ansar, staying there until the end of the 2012–13 season. He won the 2011–12 Lebanese FA Cup, and the 2012

Lebanese Super Cup The Lebanese Super Cup () is Lebanese football's annual match contested between the champions of the previous Lebanese Premier League season and the holders of the Lebanese FA Cup. If the Lebanese Premier League champions also won the Lebanese FA ...

Shabab Sahel and Tadamon Sour

On 10 September 2013, he took charge of Shabab Sahel; he won the

Lebanese Challenge Cup The Lebanese Challenge Cup () is a Lebanese football annual cup competition contested by the teams placed between 7th and 10th in the previous season of the Lebanese Premier League and the two newly promoted teams from the Lebanese Second Divisio ...

in 2014. After two seasons he returned to Ansar, managing them during the 2015–16 season, before resigning after the first league game of the following season in September 2016. In January 2017, Taha became manager of

Tadamon Sour Tadamon Sour Sporting Club ( ar, نادي التضامن الرياضي صور, lit=Solidarity Sporting Club Tyre), or simply Tadamon, is a football club based in Tyre, Lebanon, that competes in the . They play their home matches at the Tyre ...

until June 2018.

Lebanon

On 3 June 2019, he was appointed assistant manager of the Lebanon national team under

Liviu Ciobotariu Liviu Ciobotariu (born 26 March 1971) is a Romanian professional football coach and former player who is the head coach of Romanian club FC Voluntari. His son Denis is also a footballer. Club career Ciobotariu debuted in Divizia A with Prog ...

's tenure. After one year, on 17 June 2020, the

Lebanese Football Association The Lebanese Football Association (LFA) ( ar, الاتحاد اللبناني لكرة القدم, Al-Ittiḥād Al-Lubnānī Likurat Al-Qadam; french: Fédération Libanaise de Football) is the governing body of association football in Lebanon. ...

(LFA) decided not to extend Ciobotariu's contract, and appointed Taha as the national team's coach. He became the first Lebanese coach of the national team in almost 12 years, since the appointment of

Emile Rustom Emile Boulos Rustom ( ar, إميل بولس رستم; born 27 March 1952) is a Lebanese football coach and former player who is the head coach of club Sagesse. After playing with Sagesse for 22 years, and the Lebanon national team for nine ...

in November 2008. Under Taha, Lebanon underperformed in their last three fixtures of the

second round The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds e ...

of 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification, struggling to overcome

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

3–2, and losing against

Turkmenistan Turkmenistan ( or ; tk, Türkmenistan / Түркменистан, ) is a country located in Central Asia, bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the sout ...

and

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

; Lebanon qualified Lebanon to the

third round Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute'' Places * 3rd Street (disambiguation) * Third Avenue (disambiguation) * Hig ...

as fifth-best runner-up by virtue of other results going in their favour. Taha's tenure wasn't extended following the expiration of his one-year contract on 30 June 2021.

Lebanon U23

On 27 September 2021, Taha was announced head coach of the Lebanon national under-23 team.

Return to Ansar

On 26 June 2022, Taha returned as head coach of Ansar.

Career statistics

International

:''Scores and results list Lebanon's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Taha goal''.

Managerial

Honours

Player

Ansar *

: 1987–88, 1989–90, 1990–91, 1991–92, 1992–93, 1993–94, 1994–95, 1995–96, 1996–97, 1997–98, 1998–99 *

: 1987–88, 1989–90, 1990–91, 1991–92, 1993–94, 1994–95, 1995–96, 1998–99, 2001–02 *

Lebanese Elite Cup The Lebanese Elite Cup () is a Lebanese football annual cup competition contested by the top six teams of the previous Lebanese Premier League season. Founded in 1996 as the Super League Cup, the first edition was contested by the top five finish ...

: 1997, 2000 *

Lebanese Federation Cup The Lebanese Federation Cup ( ar, كأس الإتحاد اللبناني) was a Lebanese football annual cup competition. The competition was hosted five times, and served as the domestic League Cup. The cup was a preparatory competition held at ...

: 1999, 2000 *

: 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 Individual *

Lebanese Premier League Team of the Season The Al-Manar Football Festival () was an event organised by the Al-Manar television station between the 1996–97 and 2018–19 seasons in order to award players, managers, referees and teams who were considered to have performed the best over ...

: 1996–97, 1998–99

Manager

Ansar * Lebanese Premier League: 2006–07 * Lebanese FA Cup: 2006–07, 2011–12 * Lebanese Super Cup: 2012 Shabab Sahel *

: 2014

References

External links

*
Jamal Taha
at

RSSSF The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (RSSSF) is an international organization dedicated to collecting statistics about association football. The foundation aims to build an exhaustive archive of football-related information from around the ...

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Taha, Jamal 1966 births Living people Footballers from Cairo Egyptian footballers Lebanese footballers Egyptian emigrants to Lebanon Egyptian people of Lebanese descent Sportspeople of North African descent Sportspeople of Lebanese descent Naturalized citizens of Lebanon Association football midfielders Al Ansar FC players Lebanese Premier League players Lebanon international footballers Asian Games competitors for Lebanon Footballers at the 1998 Asian Games 2000 AFC Asian Cup players Association football coaches Lebanese football managers Al Ansar FC managers Shabab Al Sahel FC managers Tadamon Sour SC managers Lebanon national football team managers Lebanese Premier League managers