Carlos Queiroz turns 70 today and also celebrates 40 years of career. Enough time for the Portuguese coach to reflect on the current state of football and lament the path the king of the sport is taking. “In the beginning, naive and romantic heroes were trained. Then we started calling them professionals. Later on, we started training millionaires. Today we are training authentic companies, real companies, with different and sometimes even conflicting interests in the same team,” said he. the trainer.
Queiroz, who took over the Qatar national team after the 2022 World Cup, believes that “an important space and area of intervention was given to the so-called football agents and the media in general, who force themselves into a perversely comfortable posture and position: agents who, strangely enough, never lose matches, but have never won either”.
“Coaches are always responsible and demanding to ensure the genesis of the game and the only acceptable truth: the three points. To prevail as a team while ensuring the fundamental ethics of the game,” he said.
Carlos Queiroz says that when he looks at contemporary football he doesn’t really know what it is, or if it can be called the same football, but he still finds “traces of the ethic of the original football, of its romanticism”, but he prefers to call it today “the game of winning businessor something else”.
“In the past, the trophies were made first, the leagues, and then the financial benefits and merits were attributed to the champions. Today, financial benefits are created and calculated, and soon we will award the name of each trophy. That is why international football is at serious risk for national teams and clubs,” said the coach who revolutionized Portuguese football for many.
Rui Costa, Vitor Baía, Rúben Amorim, Fernando Santos, José Mourinho, Vicente del Bosque, Luís Figo, Paulo Futre, Iker Casillas, Jorge Jesus, Paulo Bento and João Vieira Pinto, among many other big names in national football, have a congratulations message. “This 1970s story doesn’t bother me…that class, that look, is more 50s! Jokes aside, a big hug! And if people in Portugal sometimes forget, I don’t forget! Heartfelt congratulations on your fantastic career, congratulations and thank you for what you have done for Portuguese football, you are a winner!” said the AS Roma coach.
Three decisive moments: from the 1966 World Cup to the U-20 World Cup
The Portuguese coach discussed his most important memories in football, sharing unique moments with those who have become his “football families” (managers, coaches and players), and highlighted three milestones in his career and in your professional life.
Carlos Queiroz begins by highlighting the 1966 World Cup and all the impact it had on his childhood, spent in Nampula, where he was born on March 1, 1953, and in Lourenço Marques, until 1974, “mainly for the example and contribution of Mozambicans in the selection of Portugal”. After the World Cup 1982, where he had the opportunity to contribute with his work to Telê Santana e Moraci, “taking his first steps in the world of reconnaissance and opponent analysis for that fantastic Brazilian team”.
Finally, Carlos Queiroz remembers winning the first Under-20 World Cup with Portugal, in 1989, in Saudi Arabia, which was an unprecedented achievement, repeated in 1991, in Portugal, which marked Portuguese football and a whole generation players.
“These three moments define the profile of my career. But above all, the most important milestone in my life is my father, who is also a football player and coach. Since I wasn’t able to be a better player than him, I had to try to be a better coach. I have neither one nor the other. To him I owe everything and to him I dedicate everything,” he added.
Forty years into his career, after a discreet career as a goalkeeper, with Ferroviário de Nampula (1968-73), Carlos Queiroz says that passion for the game is still “the flame that burns” and the source that enthuses him makes. “motivates you to wake up every day looking for improvement”.
“Always getting better and being able to continue to contribute to the development of players and building teams for the competition. And ultimately of course enjoying that unique result that football brings us: learn or win. I also feel the same desire.” , the same restlessness and the same nonconformity, since day one,” he said.
Qatar: the new challenge at age 70
Carlos Queiroz’s new professional challenge is the Qatar national team, which the coach regarded as “a huge source of pride” and at the same time “a tribute to gratitude for all that football has achieved over the past 40 years”. “I am referring to unique human, social and cultural experiences that I have been able to experience. I can say that thanks to football today I am someone with a world, in my being and in my life”.
Carlos Queiroz, who was Portugal’s coach in two spells (1991-93 and 2008-10), took over the Qatar national team after leaving Iran after the World Cup, for which he was hired to replace Croatian Dragan Skocic. Throughout his career, Queiroz managed six national teamsafter commanding the United Arab Emirates (1999), South Africa (2000 to 2001) and Colombia (2019 to 2020), in addition to Portugal (1991 to 1993 and 2008 to 2010), Iran (2011 to 2019 and 2022 ) and Egypt (2021 to 2022).
After winning two Under-20 World Cups with Portugal, in 1989 and 1991, with the so-called golden generation, Queiroz was chosen to take the main team to the 1994 World Cup in the United States, but he failed in his goal and left the position at the time with strong criticism of the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF).
Three seasons with Sporting followed (the most he achieved was a Portuguese Cup) and passages through the United States (MetroStars), Japan (Nagoya Grampus), the Emirates and South Africa, until he arrived in England in 2002-2003 to become Alex Ferguson’s assistant at Manchester United.
The following season, Queiroz was chosen to manage Real Madrid, but the adventure in the Meringue emblem, for which he won the Spanish Super Cup, lasted only one season, returning to Manchester at the end, again to become Ferguson’s number two.
In 2008, Queiroz returned to the Portuguese national team, this time to replace Brazilian Luiz Felipe Scolari and guarantee qualification for the 2010 World Cup, a goal that was achieved.. In South Africa, Portugal went down in the round of 16 against Spain (1-0), who had won the competition, and Queiroz left his position again in open battle with the FPF management, but also with players like Cristiano Ronaldo or Pepe. .
In 2011, the coach arrived in Iran, where he spent eight years and played in two World Cups, in which he was always in the group stage. In Brazil, the Iranian team managed only a draw in 2014, but in Russia in 2018, Queiroz won a triumph (1-0 against Morocco), only the second in that country’s history at world championships, and tied with Portugal (1-1) .
Carlos Queiroz participated in a World Cup for the fourth time in Qatarthird in a row with Iran, after leading Portugal in the 2010 edition, in South Africa, where it achieved its best record, reaching the round of 16.
Source: DN
