Khaberni - A report by the French news agency (AFP) discussed the development of Jordanian international player Moussa Al-Taamari with his team Rennes, and how he became one of the most important and prominent players of the team.
The report said: "Since he was repositioned to the left side, Moussa Al-Taamari originally convincing at the beginning of the season when he played as a right back, but he showed himself as one of the most prominent offensive weapons for the French football team Rennes.
The Senegalese coach Habib Bey said before the break, after the match against Brest (3-1) which Al-Taamari turned around by assisting the equalizer then scoring the leading goal: "He is completely different from the Moussa I knew six months ago."
Al-Taamari was chosen as the Player of the Month in December by the fans of the sixth-ranked league, who had been skeptical of him for a long time, and it seems that at the age of 28, and months before Jordan's first World Cup participation, which he is one of its main pillars, he found the effectiveness that was missing to establish himself at the highest level.
After playing in Cyprus and Belgium, he became the first Jordanian player to go professional in French courts by joining Montpellier in 2023, then moving to Rennes at the end of the last winter transfer window.
A Model for the Team
His 2025-2026 season start, like Rennes’s start, was extremely frustrating at the right-back position that required significant defensive effort, which the former winger was not inclined towards.
The return of Polish player Przemyslow Frankowski to this position was expected, which seemed to merely make Al-Taamari an alternative choice.
But the curve turned for Al-Taamari and his team at the end of October, when he unexpectedly entered on the left side during the second half of the loss to Nice (1-2) at home.
His position was confirmed in this spot against Toulouse (2-2), where he scored and assisted a goal thanks to his continuous pressure, becoming an indispensable element in the new Rennes.
And Bey said after the Brest match, "He is a player who plays with pleasure and a smile, without questioning, and most importantly, he has raised his level in the daily training on all levels."
And he added: "He doesn't stop pressing, and he doesn't stop advancing. This is how the image of the team should always be."
Rerepositioning Al-Taamari was not an adventure, but was almost inevitable. Bey explained since mid-September, "He has qualities of a player who makes a difference, breaks the rhythm, and this is very important for our style (...) He is a player very dangerous in spaces, excellent in one-on-one encounters."
"Faster Than Sound"
But being left-footed, "when he was on the right side, there were many interruptions in his main feature, which is speed, because he often cut inside to his left foot," as the Senegalese coach noted after Brest.
After his move to the left side, Rennes benefits from "his biggest characteristic as a player being very fast. There are few players who can contain him in this aspect," even if it sometimes creates a defensive imbalance because "we cannot ask him to be efficient offensively and to be perfect defensively at the same time."
Even French youth international Quentin Merlant, who the club added this summer to occupy this position before he found himself on the bench or on the right side because of Al-Taamari, showed a sportsman spirit.
And he said on Friday: "Moussa enjoys a speed far exceeding mine. This is what makes him shine, when he runs behind defenders, and when he rushes with the ball thanks to his speed, so I will never be able to do what he does."
And he added: "It’s a beautiful challenge between us. We push each other forward, challenge each other daily in training, and we excel together. I think the coach has a difficult choice. It’s up to us to give him this problem."
