Al Ramtha

The 2021 Jordanian Pro League title took thirty-nine years to arrive. Al Ramtha had last stood at the top of Jordanian football in 1982; the second championship came down to a 1-1 draw in the final round, enough to see them through on goal difference ahead of Al-Wehdat. The first two titles, in 1981 and 1982, had come in quick succession, before a drought that outlasted entire careers at the club.

The club took shape in Ar-Ramtha in April 1966, in the Irbid Governorate, and the nickname that followed, the Northern Gazelles, has stayed with it since. Domestically the record runs beyond the league table: two Jordan FA Cups either side of 1990, five FA Shields taken across more than a decade, three Super Cups spread from 1983 to as recently as 2022. Beyond Jordan's borders, the club reached the last four of the Asian Cup Winners' Cup twice, in 1991 and 1993, without going further.

Relegation to the First Division arrived in 2015, and the return to the top flight in 2020 set up the title win the following year almost immediately.

Mussab Al-Laham came up through the club's own youth ranks and now captains the side.

None of it carries the weight of the Derby of the North. Al Hussein, from the neighbouring city of Irbid, is the fixture that matters most. Ar-Ramtha itself has a second, quieter rivalry to go with it: Ittihad Al-Ramtha, founded in 1990.