{"id":32324,"date":"2018-06-13T15:05:19","date_gmt":"2018-06-13T22:05:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/?p=32324"},"modified":"2018-06-13T15:05:19","modified_gmt":"2018-06-13T22:05:19","slug":"how-carlos-queiroz-took-iran-to-the-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2018\/06\/13\/how-carlos-queiroz-took-iran-to-the-world-cup\/","title":{"rendered":"How Carlos Queiroz took Iran to the World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

GQ – NEW YORK, In an exclusive interview, former Real Madrid coach Carlos Queiroz reveals how he took Iran on a 22-match unbeaten run and became the first team to qualify for the World Cup.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Belo Horizonte, Brazil, 2014. Argentina vs Iran. Iran make only 114 passes in the whole match, the lowest amount for 50 years in a World Cup, but after 90 minutes they\u2019re holding football\u2019s finest attack to a goalless draw. Far from fade as expected, they create better chances in the second half.<\/p>\n

The 38,000 travelling Argentina fans, spread all around the stadium in blue and white, have finally been quietened by a team shunned by much of the international football community, one which had struggled to arrange friendlies because countries didn\u2019t want to play Iran. Cheeky Brazilians sing, \u201cOle, Ole, Ole, Iran, Iran.\u201d Two thousand Iranians, who have overcome travel restrictions, can\u2019t believe what they\u2019re seeing.<\/p>\n

Then Lionel Messi strikes, with a goal befitting his status as the world\u2019s greatest player. The watching Maradona applauds him as the one genuine successor to his crown. Iran\u2019s players fall to the floor in anguish: they\u2019re going out of the World Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat hurt,\u201d said substitute Steven Beitashour. \u201cThat really hurt… and I was only on the bench.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s Portuguese coach Carlos Queiroz, who managed at Real Madrid and was twice Sir Alex Ferguson\u2019s assistant at Manchester United, is incandescent, chiefly because the referee had failed to give a clear penalty to his team. Queiroz does the media to which he\u2019s contracted, then walks through the mixed zone, furious and not speaking.<\/p>\n

\u201cCarlos, a word please,\u201d this journalist asks. I wasn\u2019t a stranger, I\u2019d been to see him in Tehran three months previous \u2013 a process that took five months and several rejections to arrange and involved a flight to Dublin and a three-day wait for a \u00a3350 visa, which started out as a \u00a390 visa. Queiroz pauses, stops and unloads his strong opinions. It\u2019s gold. Someone from Fifa\u2019s own media team snidely sidles up and sticks out a microphone to pick up the quotes. Bad news \u2013 they\u2019ll put them out straightaway and kill my story.<\/p>\n

\u201cF**k off!\u201d shouts a British tabloid journalist to the Fifa official. \u201cHe didn\u2019t stop to speak to you.\u201d The Fifa official mumbles an excuse, and then goes to get her boss.<\/p>\n

Queiroz had worked wonders to get Iran to Brazil. Team Melli were Asia\u2019s seventh-ranked team when he took over in 2011, 54th in the world. Within three years they were the first. Iran had no dedicated scouting staff, salaries were poor and securing money for the team hotels and travel expenses was a struggle.<\/p>\n

Queiroz, who relied on an international network of contacts garnered throughout a 40-year career in professional football, objected to his players flying economy and airport transfers, which could take six hours early on in his tenure. He won some concessions, but it remained a struggle against far better resourced opponents. In 2014, Fifa retained Iran\u2019s World Cup qualification money because the banks are not allowed to transfer it into the country. Without that money, their players weren\u2019t paid for their achievement of reaching the World Cup finals.<\/p>\n

Queiroz has not only done the same for Russia 2018, he\u2019s done better. Iran didn\u2019t lose a single one of their ten games in qualifying and conceded only twice. They were the first team to qualify for Russia and the first team to arrive and take advantage of superior training facilities to the ones they have back home, plus a friendly against Lithuania. But has Queiroz calmed down from Belo Horizonte? This is the first question I put to him when I spoke to him this week in Moscow.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was shocked and surprised,\u201d he laughs. \u201cWe played very well against Argentina, but two people changed that game: Messi with a magical goal, and the referee, who didn\u2019t see a scandalous penalty. That could have been 1-0 for us and a red card for Zabaleta. But it\u2019s history, it has passed. I just hope that my young team now will be able to perform with the same maturity and commitment that we showed in that game against Argentina. This is a very different team now. We have young players playing in Europe, fresh blood. We have more attacking potential, we\u2019re more adventurous and, while I was disappointed by our lack of goals in qualification, we were still the first team in Asia to qualify.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iran have not lost a competitive game since the 2014 World Cup. They\u2019re 22 matches unbeaten, yet Queiroz knows Iran are not going to win the competition and sees the finals as another step towards progress. \u201cWe\u2019re consistent and we\u2019re going to the Asian Cup [in January] where we\u2019re expected to compete for the title,\u201d he says. \u201cNow is a unique and rare opportunity for us to grow up, to learn as a team and as players, and get out of this World Cup with pride, joy and a powerful team ready to win the Asian Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n

Queiroz has a tall order in Russia. His side are grouped with Spain, Portugal and Morocco. \u201cMy first reaction was, \u2018Wow, we\u2019re playing with some of the top teams in the world,’\u201d he says. \u201cBut that shouldn\u2019t be a surprise when you\u2019re in the World Cup finals \u2013 you\u2019re not going to get drawn against Ethiopia, are you?<\/p>\n

\u201cSpain and Portugal are candidates to win it. Spain are back, their game is beautiful with control of space, time and the ball. They have developed more intensity under their new coach and they are more constant in every minute of the game. That makes Spain a complicated opponent because they don\u2019t only control space and rhythm; they also apply very high intensity.<\/p>\n

\u201cMorocco, who I\u2019m glad we play first, are the best African team of the moment, except they\u2019re a European team because most of the players grew up in Europe. They have the genetics of European football, which is the best in the world. They have the schooling and education, the mentality for training and preparation. Morocco are very powerful, but we\u2019ll do our best to get in the second round for the first time in Iran\u2019s history and I won\u2019t listen to anyone who says we don\u2019t have a chance, even if we have to fight for the ball 60-70 per cent of the time in games.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iran have faced the usual problems in preparation. \u201cUnfortunately, Iran faces terrible difficulties to make agreements to play against other national teams,\u201d explains their coach. \u201cMy message for international football is very simple: let us play. Our players deserve that opportunity. Don\u2019t let sanctions create this stigma. Don\u2019t let this go against the spirit of the game. We have football players who love the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cIran loves football, and people know we have problems and now look at Iran differently, more respectfully because they know the challenges we have. They know we don\u2019t have any players in the best leagues, that political problems and sanctions greatly affect Iran and its sports.\u201d<\/p>\n

I point out he\u2019s now 65. \u201cIf you say that again, don\u2019t say it so loud as people might hear,\u201d he says. \u201cI still have that winning animal inside my stomach. I wake up every morning, I run and I want to fight, to win, to be a role model, to make everyone better around me. I have qualified for three World Cups and want a fourth. I have much more appetite to do this. Training has never involved sacrifice, work or suffering. It has always been a pleasure.\u201d<\/p>\n

But there have been tough times, surely? \u201cIt\u2019s not always easy to deal with players \u2013 my boys \u2013 medical people and officials. It\u2019s not the duty of the coach to make things easier for the [football] federation. Not highlighting areas where we could improve would mean resigning from my responsibilities; it would be like living in the shadow of collusion. I hate indifference. I am not an establishment manager who will suck up to people. My duty is to challenge and get the best conditions so my players can perform.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quieroz says what he thinks. \u201cI know that sometimes I\u2019m not easy and that I\u2019m persistent on the same issues, but we need football pitches of the quality where the players can pass quickly because when they do that they think more quickly. I\u2019ve never, in all my career, seen players deliver so much after receiving so little as I have with these Iran boys.<\/p>\n

\u201cTell me one national team which goes to the World Cup without enough friendly games [Greece recently cancelled a friendly, Kosovo then also declined to step in], or by using a 60-metre training pitch?\u201d<\/p>\n

Sanctions have also bit hard. \u201cWe struggle to travel, to have training camps, to bring opponents, to buy equipment. Even buying shirts is a challenge, but these challenges helped me fall in love with Iran. These difficulties become a source of inspiration to the people, it makes them more united, to fight for their country. These boys deserve a smile from the rest of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

This week, sanctions also meant Nike pulled out of their deal to supply the Iran team with boots. Iran are furious at the timing.<\/p>\n

Queiroz didn\u2019t expect to be in charge of Iran for seven years. \u201cWhen I left the Portuguese national team, I signed an agreement with Iran until the 2014 World Cup finals in Brazil,\u201d he says. \u201cFirst, we had to reach those finals. We did. I didn\u2019t expect to keep going, but I was then asked to do the same for the World Cup in Russia.\u201d<\/p>\n

That has meant, naturally, spending a lot of time in a country shunned by large swathes of the international community. \u201cFootball has given me the privilege to go to many places in the world, to see the United States, Japan, Africa or Europe,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd people ask me about Iran because they\u2019re curious. I tell them that I see exactly the same as in any other country I\u2019ve been to \u2013 people who laugh and cry, who dance, who sing. You see mums carrying their kids to school in the morning. You see people complaining about the traffic. Football teaches you how much human beings have in common that have nothing to do with any politics or regimes.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s happy working for those people. \u201cMy duty is to create happiness, fun and entertainment for the people. Iran is a country rich in tradition and thousands of years of history. It\u2019s just a pity that the perception of Iran around the world is not the right or real one, nor the one the Iranian people deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Football is huge there \u2013 the national team regularly drew sell-out crowds of 78,000 in qualifying. \u201cIran is a football country,\u201d says Queiroz. \u201cFootball is the DNA of the people. Iran is not a fake football country, one which needs to create or imagine fantasy solutions to promote the game. But our players need support and the politics should be left out of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

It’s a decade since Queiroz left Old Trafford to manage Portugal. He\u2019d also left to manage Real Madrid in 2003. \u201cLeaving United for a second time was tough,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to decide between two lovers. But I have happy memories from my time at United. I didn\u2019t have much time to see Moscow in 2008 [when United lifted the Champions League trophy], but when you have that taste of victory, you never forget.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was the end of his United journey which started in 2002 when Sir Alex Ferguson, on his first day, said, \u201cI brought you here to be responsible for the training and the preparation. I want you to express yourself.”<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, but you\u2019re the manager,\u201d replied his No2, who didn\u2019t think he\u2019d be responsible for training.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you have any doubts, my door is always open,\u201d Ferguson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was a little confused. I felt like he\u2019d given me the keys to the Ferrari on my first day \u2013 and one with tyres! I went quickly to my office and prepared training. I hope the lads didn’t notice that I hadn\u2019t prepared training that day.\u201d<\/p>\n

United won the league in his first season there (2002-03), but while the players appreciated Queiroz\u2019s linguistic skills, they didn\u2019t always appreciate being called by their second names. The coaches\u2019 wives all fancied Queiroz. As did Real Madrid, who offered him the top job in charge of Zidane, Figo, Ra\u00fal, Roberto Carlos and Beckham at the Bernabeu.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was happy at United, but what would you do when Real Madrid come?\u201d he explains. \u201cFirst you decide [to take the job], then you think.\u201d<\/p>\n

He never regretted it, though he didn’t like the interference in team selection from above. He also was amused by David Beckham\u2019s relationship with Roberto Carlos. \u201cDavid doesn\u2019t speak Spanish; Roberto doesn\u2019t speak English,\u201d he recalls. \u201cYet they\u2019d speak for one hour a day. They were good friends. I still can’t work out what they were doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

United were happy to have Queiroz back for a second spell and Ferguson described him as \u201cbrilliant, just brilliant. Outstanding. An intelligent, meticulous man. He was the closest you could be to being the Manchester United manager without actually holding the title.\u201d<\/p>\n

The appreciative feeling is mutual and Queiroz was stunned when his old boss was recently admitted to hospital. \u201cSix days before, we\u2019d been together and I\u2019d been enjoying his company along with his wonderful wife,\u201d he says. \u201cThe most important thing is that I\u2019ve been in contact and all the news is that he\u2019s moving in the right direction. I wish, hope and pray for a full recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n

And his young players in Russia? \u201cThey have a right to enjoy Russia, to have fun,\u201d he says. \u201cThey\u2019ve earned it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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