Jamal Al-Qabendi

Kuwaiti footballer Jamal Al-Qabendi was part of the so-called golden generation of players who represented the national team during the early 1980s. Domestically Al-Qabendi played as a defender for Kazma SC from 1976 to 1990. In 1980 he was part of the Kuwaiti squad that won the AFC Asian Cup, including playing in their 3–0 win against South Korea in the tournament’s final. The same year he played in three matches for Kuwait in the football tournament at the 1980 Moskva Olympics where the team finished in joint-fifth place. Kuwait’s football success continued in 1982 with the team winning the Arabian Gulf Cup, winning silver at the Asian Games, and qualifying for the FIFA World Cup for the first time. Four years later the team won another edition of the Arabian Gulf Cup along with a bronze at the Asian Games in Seoul.

After his retirement as a player Al-Qabendi became a coach, working as an assistant to Czech coach Milan Máčala at Kazma SC. Al-Qabendi returned to work with the Kuwait national team, with them winning the Gulf Cup in 1996 and 1998, and reaching the semi-finals of the Asian Cup in 1996.