(MENAFN- Jordan Times) AMMAN — The loud voice of Mohammad Ali was echoing at his school's rooms as he stood in the playground shouting: 'Goaaaal, Goaaaal!'
Ali, at the age of 16, was simply commentating over a match for fun and a way to entertain himself and his friends.
One teacher approached him, saying: 'We need you to commentate over the final match of the teachers' competition. Focus on this talent son, this will be your source of income,' the aspiring commentator recalled.
In the beginning, Ali did not take the tip he received from his mentor seriously, but his teacher was simply right. The 27-year-old will be the first Jordanian to comment on the UEFA Champions League final at beIN Sports channel this month after he was voted best Arab commentator by audience during Allo beIN 2018 show.
'I applied for a local TV channel to be their sports commentator but it did not work out, so I was depressed and without any second thought I pitched a video of me commenting over a goal in the Spanish League. There were thousands of videos there and I thought I would give it a try and later I won,' he told The Jordan Times.
Ali recalled that in his early days his attempts to use his talent did not pan out, as a TV show for discovering aspiring commentators has rejected him because he was under 18 years old.
'I was so depressed watching the show on TV,' he recalled.
However, he continued to pursue his dream of becoming one of the successful commentators in the Arab World.
In 2014, he started commenting over matches at JBC Radio.
'In the beginning, it was like imitating famous commentators and, in 2015, I discovered my own way of commenting,' he added.
Latin sports commentators were his source of inspiration, according to him. 'Listening to them was like listening to Fayrouz [the Lebanese singer],' he said with a smile.
Ali stressed that commenting is not an easy task to do, adding that it needs a lot of efforts to be exerted in terms of preparations.
Ali said that local sports channels ought to keep a look out for the aspiring commentators in Jordan as the Kingdom is abundant with great talent.
Today, the scene for Ali has transformed in his hometown of Irbid; he became an inspiration for his fellow residents, after years of looking for his own source of inspiration.
A number of residents created graffiti on a wall in Irbid depicting him commentating under the title 'The poor people's commentator."
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