The Portuguese coach, who has taken four teams to the finals, replaces the sacked Hossam El-Badry Queiroz is known for a sharp tactical mind, building teams that are well-organized, hard-working and difficult to beat The Egyptian Football Association have been true to their word and acted quickly to appoint World Cup qualification master Carlos Queiroz as head coach. The well-travelled Mozambique-born Portuguese tactician has a simple remit: to get the Pharaohs to Qatar. If he does so, it will be a record fifth successful qualification campaign for a coach. It is no mission impossible, especially for such a seasoned campaigner. Egypt has four points from the opening two games of qualification for the 2022 World Cup but that wasn’t enough for the EFA as they fired Hossam El-Badry on Monday. Ads by optAd360 The former Al-Ahly boss, who had taken the job in 2019, was relieved of his duties despite a nine-game record of five wins and four draws. It was the last of those draws that sealed his fate. Sunday’s 1-1 tie with Gabon, which would have been a defeat had Mostafa Mohamed not scored in the last minute, meant the pressure was building and questions were being asked over tactics and selections. It all became too much and the axe fell on the 61-year-old. The result left Egypt second, two points behind Libya in Group F. With only the group winner progressing to the next stage and with back to back games against their North African neighbours in October, the EFA felt it was time for a change. The statement from the association was to the point, thanking El-Badry: “We wish him good luck and fortune in his future career. The EFA will decide the new technical staff for the national team during the next 48 hours.” Two days later Queiroz was given a contract, the details of which have not been disclosed. The 68-year-old will arrive in Cairo by the end of the week. The attraction in hiring Queiroz is obvious. He has the experience of being in charge of Real Madrid between two stints as a valued assistant to Alex Ferguson at Manchester United. He has a fine record in qualification, leading South Africa to the 2002 World Cup, before resigning ahead of the tournament. Then he led Portugal to the 2010 tournament and then Iran to the 2014 and 2018 tournaments, the country’s first successive appearances. Other coaches have managed four qualifications but none have done so with more than one country. Ads by optAd360 Queiroz is known for a sharp tactical mind, building teams that are well-organized, hard-working and difficult to beat. Despite plenty of issues in Iran with, at times, a lack of facilities, preparation and support, he turned Team Melli into Asia’s best team, even if it wasn’t always easy on the eye. There had been speculation that the EFA would stay domestic and turn to the legendary Hassan Shehata. He may be 72 but is available after retiring from football in July when he could have taken charge of one of Egypt’s current World Cup rivals, as his son Karim explained to Cairo radio. “Hassan Shehata rejected an offer to coach the Libyan national team a while ago, then he refused to train the Syrian national team recently, stressing his preference to announce his retirement from coaching after a long career,” Karim said. There were arguments for Shehata. After all, he is the most successful coach in Egypt’s history even if he did not manage to take the Pharaohs to a World Cup; that famous loss against Algeria in the play-offs for the 2010 tournament was hard to recover from. He will forever be remembered for three successive African Cup of Nations titles in 2006, 2008 and 2010. Appointing a coach in his seventies was hardly a long-term plan. It may be that the EFA remembered Shehata’s habit of straight talking that annoyed some —especially star striker Mido — but with games coming thick and fast, the mustachioed manager was an attractive option. Ads by optAd360 Other names mentioned were Martin Jol, the former coach of Tottenham Hotspur, Ajax and Al-Ahly, and Juan Carlos Osorio, the Colombian who took Mexico to the 2018 World Cup. Former Zamalek coach Jaime Pacheco had made his interest in the job publicly known while another former boss of the Cairo giants, Christian Gross, was also thought to be in the running. Then there was Juan Antonio Pizzi. The Argentine was the toast of the coaching world in 2016 when he led Chile to the Copa America title. Recruited by Saudi Arabia in November 2017, he never really had the time to apply his style of high energy pressing and possession game. He was last seen by Egyptian fans leading the Saudis to a 2-1 victory when the two rivals met in Volgograd in the final group game of the 2018 World Cup. But when it comes to getting to the World Cup, Carlos Queiroz has an unparalleled record and, if he can make it a fifth successful campaign, then nobody in Cairo will be complaining.