Queiroz was in charge of the Egypt side that lost to Senegal on penalties in the final round of the African qualifying competition for Qatar 2022
“And now, the end is near,” said Carlos Queiroz, quoting Frank Sinatra’s classic tune, 'My Way', when stepping down as IR Iran’s head coach in January 2019.
Nearly two years later, when Senegal beat his Egypt side, on penalties, to a place at the Fifa World Cup Qatar 2022™, it was not those words that were on Queiroz’s mind but the ending of his dreams of making a fourth world finals appearance as a head coach.
Or so it seemed, for the Islamic Republic of Iran Football Federation (FFIRI) have now appointed him to take the national team to Qatar 2022 in place of Dragan Skocic, who has left the post following a number of administrative changes at the federation. Queiroz’s return to the IR Iran job means he will now make history as the first Portuguese coach to appear at four World Cups, ahead of Portugal boss Fernando Santos, who be gracing his third later this year.
Queiroz’s first tenure with Team Melli ended a little over three-and-a-half years ago, in January 2019, following a 3-0 defeat to Japan in the Asian Cup semifinal. His departure brought to an end one of the most successful chapters of his entire coaching career, which began over 40 years ago with the youth team of Lisbon club CD Olivais e Moscavide in 1981.
Reliving the past, looking to the future
“Carlos Queiroz’s spell in charge was one of the greatest eras in the history of Iranian football,” said newly appointed FFIRI President Mehdi Taj ahead of the official announcement of the Portuguese’s return. “We want the best for our national team and for our country.”
Those words are a fair reflection of the mood among the Iranian people, who only have love for Queiroz and see him as the most successful national team coach the country has ever had. Though he was not the first to take Team Melli to the world finals, he broke new ground by overseeing two successive qualifications for the tournament.
And though he failed to win any trophies in that first spell with Iran, his contribution in developing an exciting breed of players almost the equal of the golden generation of Ali Daei, Karim Bagheri, Khodadad Azizi, Hamid Estili and Ahmad Reza Abedzadeh was enough to secure him a place in the country’s footballing history.
Queiroz hopes to go far with his new charges at Qatar 2022. Their figurehead is Bayer Leverkusen forward Sardar Azmoun, with a clutch of talented players supporting him, among them Sepahan left-back Omid Noorafkan, who had been given his chance by the Portuguese and who nailed his place down following his departure.
My way
Queiroz’s Egyptian experience did not go to plan. Following the retirement of legends such as Mohamed Aboutrika, Hosni Abd Rabbo, Essam El Hadary and Wael Gomaa and a string of subsequent failures, hopes were high among Pharaohs fans that their fortunes would improve.
Firing those dreams was the growing number of Egyptian players now playing professionally abroad, chief among them the country’s first truly global star, Mohamed Salah. Backing the Liverpool man up were an interesting blend of home- and foreign-based players, raising hopes that World Cup qualification and CAF Africa Cup of Nations glory were just around the corner again.
Those hopes heaped the pressure on Queiroz, who came in for almost constant criticism when the results and attacking football the fans had hoped for failed to materialise. A pragmatic coach dedicating entirely to winning, Queiroz knew that achieving success through expansive football would be no easy task with Egypt. That is why he followed the lead of the Argentinian Hector Cuper – the last coach to guide the Pharaohs to the World Cup – by stiffening the defence. It was the Portuguese’s way of meeting the challenge posed by the heavyweights of African and Arab football.
That approach took Egypt to the semifinals of the Fifa Arab Cup Qatar 2021™ and the final of the CAF Africa Cup of Nations that same year, a match they lost on penalties to Senegal, having knocked out big guns Ivory Coast, Morocco and Cameroon, the tournament hosts. The criticism only intensified when Senegal later ended the Pharaohs World Cup qualification hopes, once again from the penalty spot, with Queiroz later leaving the job.
Third time lucky?
Qatar 2022 will be Iran’s sixth World Cup, after Argentina 1978, France 1998, Germany 2006, Brazil 2014 and Russia 2018. The fans are expecting this third consecutive appearance, with Queiroz at the helm once again, to be a historic one.
The Iranians have yet to progress beyond the first round at the world finals. They came close at Russia 2018, when just one more goal in their final group match against Portugal, the then reigning European champions, would have given them a last-16 tie against Uruguay. Having pulled level with a late penalty, they came up just short.
The margins were fine in that group. Iran would also have gone through had they drawn with Spain in their second game instead of losing 1-0 to a Diego Costa goal, or if Ronaldo had not fired Portugal to a 1-0 victory over Morocco or scored a late equaliser against Spain.
Perhaps things will be different this time, when Queiroz leads IR Iran out against Group B opponents England, USA and Wales at Qatar 2022.
The stats
297 - The number of matches in which Queiroz was an assistant to the great Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United, where the Portuguese enjoyed two spells – from 2002 to 2003 and from 2004 to 2008. He spent the year in-between as head coach at Real Madrid.
5 - Despite his pedigree as a coach who is used to working with some of the world’s greatest players, Queiroz has won only five major trophies during his long career: European and world youth titles with Portugal; the Portuguese Super Cup in 1996 and the Portuguese Cup the previous season, both with Sporting Clube; and the Spanish Super Cup with Real Madrid in 2004.
5 - Few can say they have coached on five continents. Queiroz has worked in Europe, Africa, Asia, North America and South America, taking charge of a very long list of clubs and national teams in the process.
3 - Queiroz has graced three Fifa World Cups, which puts him ninth on the list of coaches with most appearances at the tournament. He will move to joint third at the end of this year, level with Oscar Tabarez and Henri Michel, to name but two of the coaching legends with four world finals to their names.
2.1 - Queiroz averaged 2.1 points per game in his first spell with Iran, the highest he has achieved with a senior national team during his career. Across all age groups, he achieved his highest points-per-game average with Portugal’s U-20 and U-16 teams: 2.73 and 2.33 points respectively.