Evaristo (centre) with Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy secretary general Hassan al-Thawadi and Communications and Marketing executive director Nasser al-Khater.
By Sports Reporter/Doha
Former Barcelona and Real Madrid striker Evaristo de Macedo Filho has said that Qatar needs to build a young team for the 2022 World Cup which is to be hosted in the Gulf state.
The Brazilian, who holds the record for the most number of goals scored in a single match for Brazil (five against Colombia), coached Qatar to their biggest success to date in a FIFA competition at the 1981 FIFA Youth World Championships in Australia. On the way to the final they stunned his native Brazil 3-2 in the quarter-finals and edged England 2-1 in the semi-finals, before losing out to West Germany in a rain-soaked final.
Delighted that Qatar was awarded the rights to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup, he said, “I was very happy when Qatar was awarded the 2022 World Cup, and I am sure they will put on a fantastic and memorable tournament. Qatar now needs to build a good team for the home competition, to start from now. They have to build a young team, like we did in 1981.”
The Rio-born striker was the coach of ‘Al Ennabi’ from 1980 to 1986, and again in 1992. “When I first arrived in Doha in 1980, it was very small and there was nothing much there so I said to myself – shall I go back? But I stayed and it was good that I did. We played in Doha Stadium, where Pele had played a friendly match with Santos in 1973. When I arrived in Qatar everyone kicked the ball far up the field. I asked: why, don’t you like the ball?
“[Also] when I first arrived in Qatar, there was an old team. I thought with this team we won’t go anywhere. So we made a new team, the team that went to Australia. Before going we had a lengthy training camp in Brazil, where we played friendly matches and formed the team spirit that was needed to do something great,” said Evaristo, who was also the coach when Qatar won its first ever Gulf Cup on home soil in 1992.
Building on the foundations laid in the early eighties, Qatar went on to embark on one of the most successful stints in their national team history, qualifying for the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles and drawing with eventual champions France 2-2 in the opening game, as well as reaching the semi-finals of the 1991 FIFA Under-17 World Championships in Italy and the quarter-finals of the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona four years later.
During the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup Brazil last summer, Evaristo was delighted to receive a memento in the form of a photograph of all the players that reached the final in Australia, and who went on to become ambassadors for Qatar’s successful bid for the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar, from the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy secretary general Hassan al-Thawadi and Communications and Marketing executive director Nasser al-Khater.
He named Qatar’s all-time leading goals-scorer Mansour Muftah as the best ever player he worked with for Al Ennabi.
With the 2014 World Cup in his native Brazil, he said, “Every time Brazil plays I am, of course, supporting the team, but I also pray that no one comes close to my record of five goals scored in a single match.”
