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Carlos Queiroz – a meticulous, influential figure who is ‘constantly at war’

Carlos Queiroz – a meticulous, influential figure who is ‘constantly at war’
Ramin Rezaeian of IR Iran celebrates with teammates after scoring their team's second goal during the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Group B match between Wales and IR Iran at Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium on November 25, 2022 in Doha, Qatar. (Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)
Pablo Maurer for The Athletic
By Pablo Maurer for The Athletic
29 Nov 2022
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Former Bafana Bafana coach Carlos Queiroz has overseen a strong Iran team and navigated difficult political issues with care.

Long-time soccer executive Charlie Stillitano wasn’t surprised when he saw Iran head coach Carlos Queiroz go after former US Men’s National Team (USMNT) head coach Jurgen Klinsmann on Saturday evening. Not one bit.

Queiroz was replying to remarks by Klinsmann during the BBC’s coverage of Iran’s 2-0 World Cup group-stage victory over Wales on Friday.

Klinsmann criticised Iran’s style of play and was particularly critical of what he perceived as excessive gamesmanship by the Iranians – lobbying the referee, breaking the flow of the game and the like – which he called “part of their culture.” And he was particularly critical of Queiroz, perhaps unnecessarily so, pointing out his multiple failures to qualify a team for a World Cup.

Queiroz’s rebuke of Klinsmann’s comments wasn’t his first public flare-up of this World Cup. Days earlier, he went out of his way to personally confront BBC Persia reporter Shaimaa Khalil after a press conference. Queiroz had taken exception to Khalil’s questioning, moments earlier, of Iran forward Medhi Taremi in regards to the ongoing protests in Iran.

For Stillitano, Queiroz’s responses brought back memories of an incident about 28 years ago.

At the time, Queiroz was the manager of Major League Soccer’s NY/NJ MetroStars. He’d joined the club just five games into its inaugural season. It was his first coaching assignment in the US, and it would be his last.

Carlos Queiroz during Iran's clash with Wales. (Photo: Ian MacNicol / Getty Images)



He joined a team in transition; most of the roster had been assembled with input from Eddie Firmani, the club’s short-lived, first-ever head coach. As Queiroz and Stillitano, then the MetroStars’ general manager, began an early reshaping of the MetroStars roster, they turned to an unlikely place.

“We had a guy named Chris Unger,” said Stillitano. “This guy was in the front office, he was our administrative director. Chris had played in college and at a youth World Cup, but had never played professionally.

We needed a left-sided player. Chris trained with us one day – things were like that back then, you’d just bring guys in in that way – and Queiroz liked him. He said: ‘let’s sign him up.’”

The local media who covered the team were beside themselves. Surely Unger, who hadn’t played competitively in several years, wasn’t Queiroz’s first pick for a new midfielder. Surely, one reporter insisted, Queiroz’s hand had been forced by someone in the front office who owed Unger a favour.

Queiroz did not take kindly to the suggestion that he wasn’t calling the shots.

“The reporter says, ‘Did someone force you to play Chris Unger?” said Stillitano. “(Carlos) was so insulted. Then the guy followed him down the tunnel, into the locker room. We had to hold Queiroz back, our communications director. Carlos was just screaming, ‘I’m going to f*** your face! I’m going to f*** your face!’ He was still learning English back then.”

Globally known


By the time Queiroz arrived in the US in 1996, he’d already established himself as a globally known coach. He had guided his native Portugal to back-to-back Under-20 World Cups in 1989 and 1991, helping foster the growth of the country’s first “golden generation”.

It was a list of players that included luminaries such as Luis Figo, Rui Costa and Joa Pinto. He’d also coached the senior national team for two years and spent time at the helm of Sporting CP, the country’s biggest club.

Stillitano was not the first figure in American soccer to try to lure him Stateside. Just after the 1994 World Cup, US Soccer was in search of a replacement for men’s national team head coach Bora Milutinović.

Carlos Queiroz at the Iran vs Wales match. (Photo: Amin Mohammad Jamali / Getty Images)



They offered Queiroz the job, and he nearly accepted. He was so close to joining, in fact, that he’d visited the US to look at real estate for a potential move. Instead, he chose to remain at Sporting and US Soccer handed the reins to Milutinović’s assistant, Steve Sampson.

Just two years later, Stillitano lured Queiroz to New Jersey after the Portuguese coach fell out of favour at Sporting. Under Firmani, MetroStars’ training sessions had been freeform affairs with little guidance. What instruction he did provide, players baulked at, and eventually the former New York Cosmos coach lost the locker room. Things changed very quickly under Queiroz.

Iran's players celebrate their victory over Wales with coach Carlos Queiroz. (Photo: Amin Mohammad Jamali / Getty Images)



“The first thing I remember about Carlos is how detail-oriented he was,” said former MetroStars and US national team keeper Tony Meola. “Right down to how the equipment manager laid out your stuff. Carlos had a method that he wanted them to use – they’d lay your clothing out in the order you’d put it on. That’s how organised he was with all of that stuff. It showed in his coaching. It was very detail-oriented.”

Sensing a rift in the locker room, Queiroz very quickly flexed his man-management skills. He insisted that the MetroStars stay at a local hotel the night before their home games, something commonly referred to by modern-day athletes as “camping”.

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The next day, the entire team would caravan, as a group, from the hotel – Meola remembered it being modelled after an old English castle – to Giants Stadium, a 45-minute drive.

“Everything was team, team, team,” said Meola. “We had some big names on those teams – Branco, Roberto Donadoni and those guys. It didn’t matter who you were, though. The best guys played. If you weren’t part of the group then you weren’t going to play, period. He was about bringing guys together, that’s what it was.”

Forward thinking


Stillitano remembers Queiroz as a “very modern manager”, a forward-thinking, attack-minded coach. He brought the lessons learnt from working with those young Portugal sides to Major League Soccer (MLS), where he was tasked with guiding a blend of ageing European talent and unproven youth.

“Carlos was one of the first coaches I saw using film, he used VCRs,” said Stillitano. “He would go home and analyse film. This was very, very different from what was going on in MLS back then. He was a guy that fancied himself an academic.

Carlos Queiroz during Iran's match against Wales. (Photo by Visionhaus/Getty Images)



He got a degree in physical education, or coaching, in Portugal. For his master’s thesis, he’d put a camera in a little playground area in Portugal, where kids were famous for developing their game. He found that everyone, without coaches, would try and go to goal.

His thesis was that once you bring coaching into it, you teach people how to stop people from scoring goals. He felt it was a lost art, trying to teach people how to go forward and attack. He felt that the Portuguese at the time were so good because they grew up in this free environment, without coaching.”

The MetroStars did not light MLS on fire during Queiroz’s tenure, going 12-12 (back then there were no ties, with three of NY/NJ’s matches being decided via a 35-yard shootout. They crashed out in the opening round of the playoffs. But they showed enough promise under the Portuguese coach that Stillitano, and others at the organisation, would’ve gladly given him several years to continue implementing his vision.

They wouldn’t get the chance. Japanese side Grampus Eight, who were in search of a replacement for future Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, offered Queiroz a reported $2-million a year.

“I think we were paying him $150,000, at the time,” Stillitano said with a chuckle. “There wasn’t much we could do.”

Aaron Ramsey (left) of Wales in action against Saeid Ezatolahi of Iran at Ahmad bin Ali Stadium in Doha on 25 November 2022. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Rungroj Yongrit)



Queiroz had a bit of a “no stone unturned” mentality at the MetroStars, which is what led to him rolling out a member of the office staff in midfield. He also brought in a few players on loan during his time in MLS. One of them, Iranian-American defender Omid Namazi, played just 12 minutes in a MetroStars strip.

But the journeyman would leave his mark on Queiroz, and years later, they’d join forces to coach the Iran national team from 2011 to 2014. By then, Queiroz’s reputation had grown significantly – he’d spent time on the touchline with two of the biggest clubs in Europe, Real Madrid and Manchester United.

He had also revisited his ties to the US. In 1998, he co-authored “Project 2010”, an expansive, 110-page document full of recommendations for the federation (full pdf here).

In Queiroz’s view, the US was a sleeping giant, perfectly capable of winning a World Cup in the next 12 years. That pipe dream never came to fruition, but several changes did come of it, most notably the establishment of the US’ residency camp in Bradenton, Florida, and the founding of the Generation Adidas programme, a mechanism targeted at getting the country’s youngest promising players into professional contracts as quickly as possible. Other suggestions were ignored.

That same year, Queiroz once again seemed poised to take the job of USMNT head coach after Sampson and his team flamed out at the 1998 World Cup in France. But a regime change at US Soccer scuttled those plans, and Bruce Arena was given the job instead.

During a memorable five-year stretch in the 2000s, Queiroz served as an assistant to Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United. At Old Trafford, Queiroz learnt a valuable lesson.

Coach Carlos Queiroz watches Iran play Wales. (Photo: Amin Mohammad Jamali / Getty Images)



“At Man U, he was taught that they need to take care of everything for the players,” said Namazi, now an assistant and director of scouting at USL side Hartford United.

“From A to Z, every detail, so that when the player walks in the door, he has nothing to worry about other than going out on the field and performing. He lives by that. And when we were together with the Iranian national team, he did the same thing.”

‘Constantly at war’


By the early 2010s, Queiroz had changed in other ways as well – not all positive. As Namazi tells it, Queiroz had found his own, unique way of keeping himself motivated and interested in his work.

“Sometimes I saw a guy that was very combative in every facet of his work,” said Namazi.

“He almost sometimes created enemies so that he could be angry, or on the tip of his toes. He was constantly at war with somebody, whether it was the Iranian federation or someone on the staff or someone on the sports ministry in Iran, there was always some battle he was fighting, at the time. That’s what he thrives on, it’s how he lives.”

In some ways, Iran’s players greatly benefited from Queiroz’s combativeness. He battled with the federation to get them charter flights, Namazi remembered, and increased their bonuses.

“And that’s why the players will die for him and why they love him,” said Namazi. “When he crosses the line and it’s not with the players, he becomes that combative person. He fights with his staff, he fights with the federation, he holds his own press conferences and kills the federation.

“Coming from that background of having coached at Man U, Real Madrid and (in) Europe in general, he thought the Iranian federation lacked professionalism. He took everything out of their hands and basically we did everything ourselves – schedule flights, hotels, we did it ourselves, because he didn’t trust the federation.”

Yet, Namazi said, Queiroz’s sometimes stubborn nature can work against him. The dust-up with Klinsmann, he said, was probably Queiroz’s attempt to get back in the good graces of the Iranian people, many of whom have been openly critical of Queiroz and his players for not offering a stronger message in terms of the ongoing protests back home.

Protesters at Iran's match against Wales on 25 November 2022. (Photo: Matthias Hangst / Getty Images)



“I think, to be very honest with you, they’ve handled it poorly,” said Namazi. “With everything that’s going on in Iran, people getting killed every day, tortured, beaten up, they should’ve shown more support towards the people.

“From Carlos himself, there’s absolutely been no talk of that whatsoever. There have been a few players, namely Sardar Azmoun, who have been very vocal about it.



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“I think this war he started with Jurgen,” continued Namazi, “is a way to get back on the people’s good side. He was being criticised for not being the voice of the people, he was being slaughtered on social media, and this was a way to get back in people’s good graces.

“He’s talking about Iranian culture, how you don’t know the culture, calling (Jurgen) a racist. I think he took Jurgen’s words totally out of context and used them for his own benefit.”

Iran’s players did not sing the anthem ahead of their group-stage opener against England and appeared to sing it half-heartedly during their second match against Wales.

It’s unclear whether they’ll offer any protest ahead of their pivotal encounter with the US on Tuesday. For the most part, Queiroz seems focused on the task at hand – a critical match that could propel Iran to the greatest World Cup success in their history. They have not advanced beyond the group stage in six attempts.

Ramin Rezaeian scores Iran's second goal against Wales. (Photo: Julian Finney / Getty Images)



Ramin Rezaeian of Iran celebrates with teammates after scoring their second goal against Wales. (Photo: Richard Heathcote / Getty Images)



And in the US team, Queiroz might see tiny elements of his influence, via project 2010 or otherwise. He has not entirely forgotten his time in the US and openly lobbied for the current USMNT job before it was given to Gregg Berhalter.

“For me,” Queiroz said during Iran’s pre-match press conference on Monday afternoon, “(Tuesday’s match) is a very particular, special game because I had the opportunity to work in MLS at the beginning of MLS, to help US football to grow up… If I can (sum up) in one word the US team, they jump from soccer to football. It will be a difficult but very attractive game.” DM

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

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