Carlos Queiroz: The First Eight Years

This article is part of a 22-part miniseries on the history and stars of Iranian football released ahead of Iran's participation in Group B of the 2022 Qatar World Cup in November. You can explore the rest of the series here.

On April 4, 2011, Carlos Queiroz, a famous Portuguese football coach who had spent time with Real Madrid and the Portuguese national team, was selected to lead Iran’s own Team Melli. His contract was duly signed in the offices of Ali Saeedlou, then-head of the Physical Education Organization, and the prestigious appointment was hailed on the official website of the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Saeedlou had told Iranian journalists that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran at the time, had been pushing for this appointment personally. Queiroz entered the field at a time of frustration and decline for Iranian football at both the national and local level, and gave Iranian fans hope they might yet see the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

Queiroz would duly serve as head coach for the Iranian national team until 2019. In that time, Iran qualified for not one but two World Cup tournaments – the first with difficulty, the second with apparent ease. Never before had Team Melli qualified for two rounds consecutively.

In 2014, the team had a goalless draw with Nigeria, then lost 1-0 to Argentina by the skin of its teeth; even then, Lionel Messi’s goal in the 90^th minute did not take the shine off an otherwise almost flawless performance by Iran. In 2018, Iran beat Morocco 1-0 and then drew with Portugal before being knocked out 1-0 by Spain.

Elsewhere in 2015, Iran was defeated by Iraq in a penalty shootout during the quarter finals. And at the 2019 AFC Asian Cup in Qatar, the team lost out on a place in the finals after a 3-0 defeat by Japan. Before the squad had even returned from the UAE, Queiroz announced his resignation, citing external pressures. He was widely assumed in Iran to have been dismissed.

The last months of Carlos Queiroz's presence in Iranian football were marked by frequent wars of words with Persepolis FC. Some of those around him, including the then-head of the Football Federation, Mehdi Taj, had seemingly tried to put him on edge by telling him the Ministry of Sports was seeking his removal and replacement with Branko Ivanković, the then-head coach of Persepolis. Queiroz would go on to raise this matter repeatedly in interviews.

There were other, strange incidents affecting Queiroz during his tenure. In 2015, he left the country for a time, threatening to walk away completely. When he did return to Iran, his passport was confiscated by officials at the airport. IRGC-affiliated media outlets claimed the reason was “accumulated tax debts”. For his part, Queiroz said bluntly: “I am being held hostage in Iran by the country's football federation.”