Former Portuguese international goalkeeper Quim sees the Portuguese co-hosting of the 2030 World Cup, with Spain, Morocco and three South American countries, as a sign that Euro 2004 was “well achieved”, but also as a new opportunity for Portuguese fans. the twelfth player” like 26 years ago.
Interviewed live TSF Mário Fernando, a 47-year-old goalkeeper, said that the bet shows that those responsible for world football “have been paying attention” to Portugal in recent years, given that the country “has quality: good stadiums, with the best players in the world and the best coaches.”
And if in 2004, “the framework and the atmosphere that was created in Portugal were fantastic, now I imagine myself in a World Cup,” he commented, and although that year “we had more responsibilities” because the tournament was played “at home.” -, he believes that the national team can win the tournament in 2030 or even “win a World Cup by then.”
“We have the quality to be able to arrive one day, I think so. The responsibility will be the same”, further reinforces the fact that the matches can be played on national territory, as has traditionally happened with the organizing countries in the group stage. . .
“People will have the opportunity to help, to be the twelfth player like in 2004,” anticipates the goalkeeper, who guarantees that the possibility of hosting a World Cup in Portugal was not, at least, a topic of conversation in the team’s locker room. Portuguese. until the success in organizing the Euro Cup, in which Portugal finished in second place, after the home defeat against Greece at the Estádio da Luz.
“Honestly, the talks didn’t get there. [à organização de um Mundial]”, he reveals, but after the Euro Cup the topic became more “natural”, although at that time many would not have believed that something like this would happen.
Goalkeeper Quim was international “A” 32 times, representing the senior team between Euro 2000 and the 2010 World Cup.
Source: TSF
