Carlos Queiroz, coach of the Qatar national football team expressed his pride in coaching the Qatar national team, saying that it is an incredible honour and a great responsibility at the same time.
Queiroz, who has managed his home nation and Real Madrid, has agreed to become Qatar coach until the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico. The 69-year-old led Iran at the 2022 World Cup and has also managed South Africa, Colombia and Egypt.
Speaking to the Qatar Football Association (QFA) website on the occasion of his 70th birthday, the Portuguese spoke about the current status of the sport and his latest assignment as head coach of Qatar.
On his 40-year long career, Queiroz said, “It remains the same symbolic value as always. It is the passion for the game of football, which, I believe, continues to be the flame as a source that excites and motivates me to wake up every day in search of improvement. To continuously improve and be able to make my contribution to the development of players and building teams to compete. And in the end, of course, savouring that remarkable result that football brings us: learning or winning! Since the very first day, I have felt this same desire, restlessness, and non-conformity.”
Regarding coaching Qatar, the Portuguese coach said, “I feel incredible honour and responsibility to manage Qatar team. I would like to express my gratitude for their trust in me. At the same time, this challenge is also a tribute to my appreciation for everything football has provided me over these 40 years. I refer to unique human, social and cultural experiences that I was able to go through. Thanks to football, I am now someone who has lived and experienced the world tremendously.”
On the evolution of football training, he explained, “Training started with the game. After certain curious and even humorous “barbarities” encountered by the training process over time, the evolution of training made the game return to the content and methodology of training. After consolidating the concepts and methods, the technical, tactical, physical and mental fundamentals of the player and contemporary football, I believe that the big challenge today is the brain and everything that has to do with training the player’s decision-making, from youth to the highest levels of competition. Science’s latest findings have paved the way for novel approaches to practice and, by extension, to the game and competition.”
On modern football, Queiroz pointed out, “I’m unsure if we can still talk about the same football game. I look at modern football and sometimes need to figure out what we’re talking about. Yes, this game still has traces of the original football ethics and its romanticism, but today I’d much rather describe it as the game of “winning business” or something similar. Originally, you would first create the competitions and then the financial gains and merits were attributed to the champions. Today financial gains are created and calculated first, and then we create the competitions. That is why the National teams and international club competitions are at serious risk. In the beginning, we would train naive and romantic heroes. Then we started calling them professionals. Later we began to train millionaires. Today we train actual companies, real businesses, and sometimes with antagonistic interests in the same team.
“Meanwhile, the coach’s status and influence have declined, often due to their own actions. We gave up a lot of potential ground for intervention thanks to the media and so-called “football agents,” who are in an oddly secure position: they never lose games but never win them. Yet, coaches are expected to safeguard the game’s origins and the one fact that can be accepted: the three points. And that’s why it’s up to them to work on progress, defending and promoting at the same time that sublime concept of triumphing as a team, and at the same time ensuring the fundamental ethics of the game.
On his memorable moments, Queiroz said, “In my memories, fortunately, I have unique moments living with those who have been my “football family”. The managers, my training staff and particularly the players, to whom I owe much of what I am today and to whom I am eternally grateful. I believe three moments mark my professional life: the 1966 World Cup and all the impact it had on my youth, mainly due to the example and contribution of Mozambicans in the Portuguese national team; the 1982 World Cup, where I had the opportunity to contribute with my humble work to Tele Santana and Moraci, making my first steps in scouting and analysing the opponents for that fantastic Brazilian team; and winning the first U-20 World Cup with Portugal.
“These three moments define my profile and my career. But above all, the most important reference in my life is my father, who was also a football player and coach. Not being able to be a better player than him, I was left with trying to be a better coach. I got neither one nor the other. I owe everything to him, and I dedicate everything to him.”
