He's chuckling because as a very youthful and fit chairman of the Jordanian FA, if he could have picked himself, it is unlikely anyone would have stopped him.
"But I was never good enough," he told Reuters in an interview in the Qatari capital, "although it was great to be the same age as them.
"That was very useful. There was some opposition to me from the establishment, but it was good to be close to the players and know what they were thinking. It was useful."
Instead of a playing career, the youngest son of the late King Hussein and late Queen Alia applied himself to the serious business of soccer politics.
And on Thursday, still only 35, he was elected as Asia's vice-president on the FIFA Executive Committee beating the seemingly impregnable Chung Mong-joon of South Korea, who was backed by the powerful Mohamed Bin Hammam, the Qatari president of the Asian Football Confederation.
Prince Ali, who strongly supports FIFA president Sepp Blatter and has his backing in return, will become the youngest member of the executive by some considerable margin, and is intent, in as diplomatic a way as possible, to change some of the current thinking at the top.
MAJOR IMPACT
He agrees it may take him years to have any major impact in a committee full of far older and experienced football politicians than himself, but he does have some fresh ideas.
One, of course, regards future World Cups.
Qatar's success in securing the right to stage the 2022 World Cup finals provides the perfect catalyst for some new thinking.
Intriguingly, he hinted that the concept of rotating future World Cups around the continents, could one day be re-examined.
"I don't necessarily think that it's the end of the day for anyone who lost out in the World Cup bids last month. The idea now is to go from continent to continent, but even that should not necessarily be the case," he said.
"We really have to work in the future on getting the World Cup to the nations that best deserve it."
He agrees, though, that the last month has been exciting in the Middle East following Qatar's success.
"It is good to have a celebration in the Middle East, for far too long, we have not had anything to celebrate about.
"Hopefully it will embrace the region and have the kind of effect on the population that the World Cups had in South Africa or in Germany in 2006 when it gave the Germans a lot of pride and unity in their country."
WINTER PLAN
He also agreed that if the 2022 World Cup were to be staged in the winter months, that would not trouble him.
"I know the issue was raised after the decision to host it in June and July was taken, but we need to ensure it is a success.
"We would have to talk to our friends in Europe and the other continents and obviously there is a winter break in some European countries.
