Chelsea career

Despite being a proficient athlete and technically adept with a football, Jamal has long since been a goalkeeper. He has solid fundamentals and superb height, reaching 6'5" by the age of 15. He served as the backup goalkeeper during the 2009-10 FA Youth Cup campaign and kept goal for Chelsea in the 2008 Cobham International Tournament, which the club finished runners-up in.

He was the senior goalkeeper for the Under-18 team for 2010-11 and on August 4th 2010, made his first appearance for the Reserve team, in a 1-0 friendly defeat at Woking, before making his competitive bow away to Wolves early in the season proper.

Jamal was a close second in the club's 2010-11 Academy Scholar of the Year award voting. At the beginning of the 2011-12 season, Jamal worked heavily with the club's reserve team and made his first appearance in a senior matchday squad, serving as backup to Petr Cech for the Premier League fixture at home to Arsenal with both Ross Turnbull and Hilario unavailable.

He was the club's first choice goalkeeper for the 2011-12 FA Youth Cup campaign and was a key figure en route to winning the competition. In January 2012 he was also included on the club's Champions League A-list as a home-grown player, replacing Hilário and allowing Ryan Bertrand to be registered instead as the left-back did not meet the required number of years at the club to qualify as club-grown. This ensured that Blackman received a winner's medal after defeating Bayern Munich in the Final.

He continues to train with the first-team goalkeepers on a daily basis whilst serving as the first choice Under-21 goalkeeper for the 2012-13 season.

Pre-Chelsea

Jamal has been at Chelsea since his early teens, joining at Under-13 level.

International career

Jamal has represented England at Under-16, Under-17, Under-18 and Under-19 levels.