Carlos Queiroz of Portugal has signed a US$2 million contract to coach Iran through to the end of the 2014 World Cup, Iranian media reports said yesterday.
“Carlos Queiroz has signed a contract with the Iranian football federation to coach ‘Team Melli’ up to the end of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil,” the ISNA news agency said.
Iran’s English language Press TV channel said on its Web site that the Portuguese coach will be paid “an annual salary of about US$2 million.”
ISNA quoted Queiroz as saying on arrival in Tehran early yesterday: “I am here in Iran to help the team make it to the 2014 World Cup. This is my most important aim and I hope with everyone’s help we can make it.”
“We need to plan for the near, mid and long terms,” he said after inking the deal in a press conference shown live on state television.
Queiroz said it was “time to work and not to make promises.”
“You need to put together talent, organization and order. The better you put them together, the more chances of success,” the former Real Madrid boss said.
Queiroz takes over from Tehran-born US national Afshin Ghotbi, whose contract was not renewed after Iran were knocked out of this year’s Asian Cup by South Korea.
The 57-year-old twice former Manchester United assistant boss was most recently coach of Portugal, whom he took to last year’s World Cup in South Africa.
Queiroz was sacked from that role last September after a disciplinary feud sparked by a six-month ban for insulting officials from the country’s anti-doping body.
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