Carlos Queiroz will be the new coach of Qatar. As DN has been informed, the Portuguese coach is currently traveling to Doha to sign a contract with the Qatar Football Federation and be officially appointed as national coach. It will be the seventh challenge as manager of the 69-year-old coach, one of 7 Portuguese at the helm of a foreign team: Fernando Santos (Poland), Rui Vitória (Egypt), Pedro Gonçalves (Angola), Paulo Duarte (Togo) , Hélio Sousa (Bahrain), José Peseiro (Nigeria).
After Iran’s elimination from the 2022 World Cup, Queiroz entered the Qatari radar. He was invited by the sheikh to watch the World Cup final and asked to succeed Félix Sánchez. The coach later returned to Doha to negotiate and left with a preliminary agreement that would only become formal after the Gulf Cup, a competition in which the national team played Pedro Ró-Ró Correia, naturalized as Portuguese, reached the semi-finals. Now it’s a matter of hours before it’s announced.
After taking part in a World Cup for the first time as an organizing country, the Arabs want to qualify for a World Cup and the next one is in 2026. Queiroz’s big mission will be to win the Asian Nations Cup this year (between June 16 and July 16), proof that Qatar wants to win again, after the unprecedented triumph of 2019.
Queiroz has four qualifiers for Worlds. In fact, he is the only coach in history to do this with more than one roster. Of the seven he has mentored – Portugal (1991 to 1993 and 2008 to 2010), United Arab Emirates (1999), South Africa (2000 to 2001), Iran (2011 to 2019 and 2022), Colombia (2019 to 2020) and Egypt (2021) – just failed to qualify two for a World Championship.
Before taking on the new challenge, Carlos Queiroz broke his emotional connection with Iran on social networks.
Source: DN
