World Cup: Carlos Queiroz outlines major challenges, tactics, selection criteria

Ghana head coach, Carlos Queiroz has admitted that, managing the senior team at the World Cup will be the biggest challenge of his entire career.

The 73-year-old signed a four-months contract to lead the four time African champions at the FIFA World Cup to be co-hosted by Mexico, Canada and USA in June.

The former Egypt and South Africa tactician said the Ghana job is the biggest challenge of his career but expressed readiness to deliver.

He made those assertions during his unveiling at the Alisa Hotel in Accra on Thursday.

“I must say that after eight national teams and the important competitions, this is the biggest challenge of my entire career and the ready for that,” Queiroz told the media on Thursday.

“I’m ready for that and I can promise ane guarantee to join that I will bring forty years of my knowledge and experience, everything for Ghana.

“So I trust and believe that with the support of my staff, support of the board, the support of the press, support of the fans, all together, united, wirh cohesion and with a lot of vision, I trust that we can do it.”

The Portuguese manager has been tagged as a defensive tactician but Queiroz, who guided Iran to three FIFA World Cups, opened up on what tactics he will employ during matches at the global football festival.

“My personal experience and my knowledge in football, there is no that team in modern football as defensive or attacking coach.

“The language that I know for myself and I’m sure the Ghana national team expects from me, it is the winning language.

“I’m a winning coach, I don’t understand the thing of defence or attack, I know one thing that when we have to ball, we fight together.

“For my players I only know one thing, if we have the ball we have to attack, if we don’t have the ball, we have to fight together, that’s the rule of the game.

Queiroz, who guided Egypt to the finals of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon, says he would love to extend his contract beyond four months if the opportunity arises.

“I wish that after our performance at the World Cup, the government of Ghana will be happy with me.

“So if I have to stay for the rest of my life, I don’t mind it is because we [have] succeed again.

Ghanaians have been clamouring for the inclusion of home based players in the senior team but that call has scarcely made an impact.

With 34-home based players invited by head coach Kassim Mingle, Queiroz says he will have a fair assessment of the players before his final selection for the World Cup.

“First of all, nobody owns the national team, that’s the point that must be clear.

“But the players, they dream to represent the country [and] it is our job to give them the fair and the right opportunities.

“That’s why in this short period of time, my concern with the federation was to organize the local players because I didn’t want to go for the final selection without the opportunity to see them and then analyze them.

“So at the end my job is to be sure that the ones that are observed, they are the ones that really deserve to be there.

“In the national team, it is a house without windows, without doors, inside the house can only be the players that deserve to be there.

“This is the criteria that we have to follow in the moment that I have to make the decision.”

He brings in a rich experience to the Ghana squad having managed seven different national teams.

He led South Africa (2002), Portugal (2010) and Iran (2014, 2018, and 2022) to the FIFA World Cup.

The Mozambique born previously coached Qatar, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Colombia and Egypt, guiding the Pharaohs to the finals of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations where they lost to Senegal in the finals in Cameroon.

At club level, he has also managed Portugal side, Sporting CP, the New York/New Jersey Metrostars in Major League Soccer and Spanish club Real Madrid.

He had two spells as Alex Ferguson’s assistant manager at English club Manchester United.

Ghana will be making a fifth appearance at the Mundial and have been drawn in Group L alongside Panama, England, and Croatia.

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