Queiroz..a long training path and promising previous experiences for the Egyptian national team before facing Senegal

Portuguese Carlos Queiroz is an expert in leading national teams to the World Cup finals, and once again stands on the doorstep of the World Cup when he plays two playoff matches with Egypt against African champions Senegal on Friday and Tuesday in the decisive third round of African qualifiers.

Agence France-Presse takes a look at the successful experiences in the World Cup qualifiers for the former Real Madrid coach, Queiroz, 69, and the former Portugal, UAE, South Africa, Iran and Colombia teams.

Promising beginnings

After a normal career as a goalkeeper, Queiroz began his coaching career at the end of the eighties, and his country's national team was his first stop.

He first made his name when he awarded his country two consecutive U-20 World Championships, in 1989 and 1991.

He was accompanied by a group of talented youngsters who emerged in the biggest European clubs in the following years: Luis Figo, Rui Costa, Paulo Sousa, Joao Pinto, Fernando Cotto and others... He was then promoted to the first team, where he won 14 times in 31 matches, but the World Cup qualifying campaign for the States United 1994 came difficult.

Seleção finished third in a strong group, two points behind Italy and one point behind Switzerland.

After failing to qualify for the American World Cup, he left the Portugal national team in 1993, and then coached several clubs, including Sporting, alongside the UAE national team for a short period in 1999.

Bafana Bafana

The "Professor" (as he is nicknamed) made a big statement when he led South Africa to the 2002 FIFA World Cup South Korea and Japan, but left his post in March 2002 ahead of the finals due to a dispute with the South African Football Confederation.

It was the second time in a row that "Bafana Bafana" participated in the global event before hosting the historic 2010 finals, the first on the African continent, knowing that it was eliminated three times from the group stage.

And then Queiroz, who was born in Mozambique, became famous for sitting as assistant coach to Scottish Sir Alex Ferguson when he led Manchester United to his glory in England, during which he supervised the Spanish giant Real Madrid, which included French Zinedine Zidane, Brazilian Ronaldo, Portuguese Luis Figo and England David. Beckham.

A second Portuguese period

A few weeks before the start of the 2010 World Cup qualifiers, Queiroz took charge of Portugal again, after a successful period by Brazilian Luiz Felipe Scolari with Seleção.

He finished second, two points behind Denmark, after a bumpy start, so he needed to play a playoff against Bosnia and Herzegovina, which gave him a ticket to qualify for the African World Cup, where he reached the round of 16 and lost to Spain with a goal by David Villa.

At a time when it was expected that Queiroz's proximity to star Cristiano Ronaldo would be a key in their relationship and the player's performance with the national team, he failed to bring out the best in the "Don" in the team's shirt.

Within two years, the five-times best player in the world and the all-time top scorer in the national teams was satisfied with one goal with the Portuguese national team under the leadership of Queiroz.

The relationship between the two men collapsed after the exit from the 2010 World Cup final.

In response to journalists' questions about the reasons for the loss, Ronaldo said angrily, "Take a question to Carlos Queiroz."

The coach tried to stand up to his star player, but was fired shortly afterwards.

In 2014, Queiroz would go on to say that CR7 (Ronaldo's nickname) did not have "good enough behaviour".

A long Iranian experience

After two short careers in Japan and the UAE at the end of the nineties, Queiroz returned to the Asian continent, where he settled for eight years between 2011 and 2019 with the Iranian national team.

He succeeded in his first task of qualifying Tim Melli to the 2014 World Cup. Despite his group bottoming out with a point, the Iranian Federation renewed his contract after contributing to the development of the team and bringing new blood.

He led Iran again to the World Cup in the last Russia 2018.

Although he was bid farewell to the group stage, he came out with his head held high, after his difficult victory over Morocco 1-0, his loss against Spain with a goal and his equalizing in the deadly time of his fellow countrymen Portugal 1-1.

After losing the 2019 Asian Cup semi-final against Japan by 3-0, he separated from Iran and then went through a trip with Colombia that ended with negative results in the World Cup 2022 qualifiers, before the Egyptian Federation announced his arrival on September 8, 2021, instead of Hossam El-Badri.

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