Carlos Manuel Brito Leal de Queiroz (born 1 March 1953) is a Portuguese association football manager. He has served as the manager of the national teams of Portugal, the United Arab Emirates, South Africa, Iran, Colombia, Egypt, Qatar, Oman and Ghana, leading South Africa (2002), Portugal (2010), Iran (2014, 2018, 2022) and Ghana (2026) to the FIFA World Cup. At club level, he has managed Sporting CP, the New York/New Jersey Metrostars in Major League Soccer and Spanish club Real Madrid. He also had two spells as Alex Ferguson's assistant manager at English club Manchester United. In 1998, Queiroz authored the Q-Report, which detailed plans to enhance footballer development in the United States.
Queiroz is the longest-serving manager in the history of the Iran national team, serving for almost eight years between 2011 and 2019. He returned to the role for Iran's 2022 World Cup campaign. Queiroz is the only manager in the country's history to lead them at three consecutive World Cups.
Career Born in Angoche, Nampula, Portuguese Mozambique (Nampula Province was known as Moçambique at that time), to Portuguese parents, Queiroz had a professional career as an association football goalkeeper in Mozambique before turning to management. He moved to Portugal following Mozambique's declaration of independence in 1975. Queiroz is a graduate of the University of Lisbon. He coached the Portugal under-20 team to two FIFA World Youth Championship wins, in the 1989 and 1991 tournaments.
Early senior career In 1984, Queiroz was appointed as assistant manager of Estoril-Praia. After that, Queiroz was appointed Portugal national team coach in 1991. He had a record of 14 wins in 31 matches. Afterwards, he went on to manage the Portuguese Primeira Divisão team Sporting CP in 1994.
He subsequently coached the NY/NJ MetroStars in the United States and the Japanese team, Nagoya Grampus Eight. In between, he found time to author the Q-Report, detailing plans to professionalize the development of footballers in the United States. Queiroz returned to coaching national teams in 1999, when he took the job as head coach of the United Arab Emirates, before becoming head coach of South Africa in 2000. Under Queiroz, South Africa qualified for the 2002 FIFA World Cup, and Queiroz resigned in March 2002 before the finals, after falling out with the South African Football Association. Queiroz was part of FIFA XI coaching staff, alongside Brazilian Carlos Alberto Parreira, in a humanitarian friendly match played in war-torn Sarajevo against Bosnia and Herzegovina on 25 April 2000.
Queiroz became a coach at English club Manchester United in June 2002. He began his work at the start of the 2002–03 season, working alongside Alex Ferguson, who had gone without an assistant manager since the departure of Steve McClaren in the middle of 2001.
Real Madrid Queiroz's position at Manchester United as assistant manager attracted the attention of Real Madrid, who wanted Queiroz as their manager to replace departing manager Vicente del Bosque in the summer of 2003. It was an opportunity to work with FIFA World Player of the Year award winners Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo and Luís Figo, an opportunity that Queiroz felt unable to turn down. Queiroz was appointed on a two-year contract, a week after the arrival of Manchester United player David Beckham. In the same summer, Real Madrid lost veteran defender Fernando Hierro, defensive midfielder Claude Makélélé and striker Fernando Morientes.
Real Madrid got off to a winning start of the 2003–04 season, defeating Mallorca in the Supercopa de España, with Beckham scoring in the second leg. By mid-season, the team topped the La Liga table and was in contention for the Copa del Rey and the Champions League. They lost their final five matches and finished fourth, with Valencia winning the title. Real Madrid lost the Copa del Rey final to Real Zaragoza and were eliminated from the Champions League in the quarter-finals by Morientes's new team Monaco, after a 4–2 first leg win, ending the season with the Supercopa as the only trophy won. After ten months at the Santiago Bernabéu, Queiroz was sacked in May 2004.
Return to Manchester United
Queiroz returned to United as Ferguson's assistant in June 2004. Some sources noted the effect of his absence on the club's 2003–04 season, in which they came third in the league and exited from the Champions League in the round of 16, despite winning the FA Cup, which would be Ferguson's last FA Cup triumph.
In his 2014 autobiography, United captain Roy Keane stated that an argument with Queiroz about loyalty was one of the reasons why the Irishman quit the club in 2005. Keane said during ITV's coverage of the 2018 FIFA World Cup that "one of my big regrets is that I probably should have ripped his head off".
Queiroz was linked with managerial roles with Portuguese side Benfica and the United States national team in 2006, and remained with Manchester United to help them win the Premier League in 2007. Queiroz was seen conducting interviews with BBC programmes, such as Match of the Day, as at the time Alex Ferguson refused to speak with the BBC after allegations by the BBC's Panorama programme that Ferguson's younger son Jason and Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp had been involved in corruption regarding cuts in transfer fees. Some of Queiroz's post-match opinions on refereeing were controversial. For example, in 2008 Queiroz was – unsuccessfully – charged with improper conduct by the Football Association after describing referee Martin Atkinson's performance in a match as "a disgrace".
In March 2008, it was reported that Benfica had, once again, approached Queiroz to become their manager and had made a formal request to Manchester United. United were involved in the 2007–08 Premier League title race, five points clear at the top, with seven games remaining, and also were still competing in the Champions League – being in the quarter-finals at the time of the enquiry. Queiroz did not make any public response to the approach. United would win both of the competitions.
Following Benfica's approach, and amid rumors of an opening as the Portugal national coach, Ferguson started to push for Queiroz to be his successor as manager at Old Trafford and discouraged any possible suitors from approaching him. Rumours over the summer of 2008 continued to link Queiroz with the Portugal national team, following the departure of Luiz Felipe Scolari. On 11 July 2008, Manchester United agreed to release Queiroz from his contract, and he was appointed manager for the Portugal national team.
Portugal On 11 July 2008, it was announced that Queiroz was leaving Manchester United, having agreed to a four-year contract to become the head coach of the Portugal national team.
Quieroz was suspended for six months by the Portuguese Anti-Doping Authority (Autoridade Antidopagem de Portugal) on 30 August 2010, when he was judged to have disrupted their pre-World Cup procedures; he had been suspended for a month by the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) for using inappropriate language towards the testers, a lesser charge that he admitted to. He was sacked by the FPF on 9 September. On 23 March 2011, the Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld his appeal against the Anti-Doping Authority, annulling his suspension.
Iran On 4 April 2011, Queiroz agreed to a two-and-a-half-year deal to coach Iran until the end of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, alongside goalkeeping coach Dan Gaspar and assistant coach Omid Namazi.
Since Queiroz's role as manager of the Iran national team, he has been renowned for introducing players from the Iranian diaspora to the national squad. These players include German Iranians Daniel Davari and Ashkan Dejagah, Dutch Iranian Reza Ghoochannejhad, Swedish Iranians Omid Nazari and Saman Ghoddos, and Iranian American Steven Beitashour, among others.
Iran qualified for the 2014 World Cup as group winners and competed in Group F alongside Argentina, Nigeria, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. On 1 June 2014, Queiroz announced his 23-man squad. Prior to the tournament, they founded the Central Asian Football Association.
In the opening match of the tournament on 16 June, Iran drew Nigeria 0–0, making it their first clean sheet of the FIFA World Cup. In their next match, Iran was defeated by Argentina 1–0 with a goal from Lionel Messi, and received praise after holding Argentina for 90 minutes while creating some attacking opportunities of their own. Iran was eliminated from the tournament in their next game, a 3–1 defeat to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Iran's lone goal was scored by Reza Ghoochannejhad. Based on a Forbes report, Queiroz's salary as an Iranian team manager was US$2,098,060 during the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
After the tournament, Queiroz extended his contract until the 2018 World Cup.
Iran continued their winning streak after 2014 World Cup qualification, securing qualification to the 2015 Asian Cup months later as the highest ranked seed. Iran qualified for the 2015 AFC Asian Cup as group winners, where they were the highest ranked seed. Iran faced Bahrain, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates in Group C.
With the second highest number of fans in the tournament after hosts Australia, the Iranians defeated Bahrain 2–0.Iranian crowd sets Asian Cup standard A defensive-minded Iran then defeated Qatar 1–0 thanks to a Sardar Azmoun goal before defeating the UAE by the same scoreline to reach the top of their group.
In the quarter-finals, Iran faced Iraq, who they had beaten weeks prior in a friendly match. Having received a red card in the first half from referee Ben Williams, Iran led an effort with ten men, scoring two goals in extra time to draw the match 3–3. In the ensuing penalty shootout, Iran lost 7–6 in sudden death.
Iran began their 2018 World Cup qualification campaign with friendly matches against Chile and Sweden in March 2015. Queiroz resigned from his managerial post thereafter due to disagreements with the Iranian Football Federation.Queiroz quits as Iran coach On 14 April 2015, Iran were drawn with Oman, India, Turkmenistan, and Guam in the second round of qualifiers.
On 26 April, Queiroz announced that he would continue as the manager of Iran for their 2018 World Cup campaign. Iran ended their second round qualifying with a 4–0 victory against India and a 2–0 win against Oman. Iran finished top of the group with 20 points from eight games, Queiroz and his team managed to avoid defeat and remain unbeaten in the second round of World Cup qualifying. Iran was placed in Pot 1 alongside Australia for the draw of the third round of World Cup qualifying. They drew with South Korea, Uzbekistan, Qatar, China and Syria. With two games remaining, Iran qualified to the World Cup with defeating Uzbekistan at the Azadi Stadium. They became third team to qualify to the World Cup after host Russia and Brazil.
In April 2018, Queiroz was one of the applicants for the vacant Cameroon national team job.
After going undefeated in qualification, Iran beat Morocco 1–0 in their opening match of the tournament thanks to an own goal from Aziz Bouhaddouz, and lost 1–0 to Spain in their second match. Their final match saw Queiroz come up against his home country, Portugal; after going 1–0 down, goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand saved a penalty from Cristiano Ronaldo to give Iran hope, and they had to wait until injury time at the end of the second half for an equaliser from Karim Ansarifard. The draw might have been enough to see Iran into the knockout phase for the first time in their history at the expense of the Spaniards, and Spain's injury-time equaliser in a 2–2 draw with Morocco meant they qualified with Portugal.