At age 15, Jordan had also begun playing for the Scottish Junior Football Association club, Blantyre Victoria.

[5] There was little prospect of Jordan making the Leeds first-team, as the partnership of Allan Clarke and Mick Jones was a well-established and successful duo.

Having caught the eye of Verona for his brave, strong and combative performance in Serie B for Milan, they sought to use Jordan's strength to play up front alongside the up and coming players Maurizio Iorio or Giuseppe Galderisi, who were fast and nimble but lacked strength, and were thought to be unable to play together, being an 'odd-couple'.

This poor form ultimately led Verona to drop Jordan and settle on the pairing of Iorio and Galderisi until the end of the season, with Jordan returning to England after that one season, credited at least with having passed on valuable experience to Iorio and Galderisi and other young players at the club.

[11] Securing Scotland a place at the finals, this was the first time they had qualified for the World Cup since 1958, failing at three previous attempts.

At the 1974 World Cup, Jordan scored the second goal in a 2–0 win over Zaire in the first group game, and a last minute equaliser in a 1–1 draw with Yugoslavia.

In the second to last game of the qualification campaign for the 1978 World Cup to be held in Argentina, Jordan won a controversial penalty against their opponents Wales, said to have helped Scotland to qualify at their expense.

Scotland once again failed to progress beyond the group stages, but a personal milestone was achieved when he scored in the 2–2 draw against the Soviet Union.

[5] Moving into management, Jordan's first job was at Bristol City which saw the club reach the semi-finals of the League Cup.

In 1990 Jordan was appointed manager of the Scottish Premier Division club Heart of Midlothian, based in the capital, Edinburgh.

After a poor start to the 1990 campaign, Hearts had sacked their manager of eight years Alex MacDonald, and turned to Jordan as a high-profile ex-Scotland international striker.

After a poor run in the 1992–93 season, which featured a 6–0 loss to Falkirk, later described by the club as a thrashing, the board sacked Jordan.

Speaking in 2010, Jordan expressed bitterness over his departure from Hearts, asserting he had done "particularly well" and the dismissal was undeserved, but reflecting "That's life, you get on with it, nobody's going to listen to your sad stories, but that was a sore one".

"[4] Jordan was appointed manager of Stoke City in November 1993 taking over from fellow Scot Lou Macari who had left to join Celtic.

[14] They eventually accepted Jordan as the new manager but his style of play soon began to cause grumblings from the terraces but the side slowly got results going if not the quality of football on offer, Stoke finishing the 1993–94 season in 10th position.

[14] The 1994–95 season saw no change in the relationship between Jordan and the supporters and it came as little surprise when after a couple of heavy 4–0 defeats he resigned on 8 September 1994.

On the morning of 26 October 2008, after agreeing a compensation deal of £5m, Redknapp left Portsmouth to become the new manager of Tottenham Hotspur.

This left assistant manager Tony Adams and first-team coach Jordan to take charge of the team for the 1–1 home draw against Fulham the same day.

"[17] On 7 November 2008 Jordan left Portsmouth to join Redknapp at Tottenham Hotspur as first-team coach, reforming the original Portsmouth back room team after Redknapp had also brought the recently sacked AFC Bournemouth manager Kevin Bond as Tottenham assistant manager.

[24] Citing his "highly successful career at club level" at Leeds, Manchester United and Milan, the Hall of Fame stated Joe would probably be best remembered for his crucial 1973 World Cup qualifying goal against Czechoslovakia.

[5] According to The Herald, Jordan's hero status took hold with the goal against Czechoslovakia, due to both its significance and the fact it had been seemingly scored "as if it were an act of sheer will.

[4] In contrast to his playing career, Jordan has lamented the state of the game in Scotland in the late 2000s, which has seen a decline in domestic and international Scottish football, and profile of Scottish players in England, and a drying up of opportunities and even the availability of up and coming local players, contrasted to his era with contemporaries like Asa Hartford, Kenny Dalglish and Danny McGrain.

[4] Jordan was nicknamed "Jaws" early in his playing career due to his lack of front teeth, which had been knocked out during a Leeds United reserve match after he was kicked in the face during a goalmouth scramble.

[25] According to The Times in 2009, images of Jordan's "ferocious fangs as a player still regularly [appeared in] Scottish newpapers [sic] whenever an excuse can be found to hark back to the game's golden age".

[26] Jordan was involved in several confrontations during his time at Tottenham, including with Roy Hodgson,[27] Paul Ince,[28] Alan Pardew, Andy Woodman,[29][30] and Gennaro Gattuso.

"[33] David O'Leary, when reflecting on his entire playing career as a defender (spent mostly at Arsenal between 1975 and 1993) he said of Jordan that he was the most combative forward he had ever faced.

[5] Citing his dislocation of Milija Aleksic's jaw in 1980 as an example, The Independent described in 2011 how Jordan was a player who "did not stand for nonsense on the pitch".

[4] Following the clash with Gattuso, playing on his hardman reputation, The Independent listed the "Five reasons not to mess with Joe Jordan".

[4] In the same interview, while living in Bristol, Jordan was described as having the intensified Scottish patriotism of an exile, who was willing to seize the opportunity to manage the Scotland national team since 2002.

[4] Jordan has two sons who have both played professional football: Tom and Andy (who retired due to injury after leaving Hartlepool United).