Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Doha: Jose Daniel Carreno has been appointed head coach of the Qatar national team, the Qatar Football Association (QFA) confirmed on their official website, with the 52-year-old Uruguayan taking over the managerial reins from Djemal Belmadi.
Carreno (pictured) is no stranger to football in Qatar having made the move to the national team set up from Qatar Stars League side Al Arabi, who he led to an eighth-place finish in the 2014-15 QSL after replacing Dan Petrescu in December last year.
Prior to joining the seven-time Qatar champions, former Montevideo Wanderers striker Carreno was making a name for himself in Saudi Arabia, where he led Riyadh side Al Nassr to the 2013-14 league and Crown Prince Cup double.
The QFA officially parted company with Belmadi at the end of April, with the Qatar football authorities and the former Algeria international ending their relationship amicably according to a statement issued by the QFA.
“Mr. Belmadi was one of our finest coaches,” QFA President Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani said in the statement.
“He lifted the spirit of the national team players and carried out his tasks well.”
Under Belmadi, who guided Lehkwiya to back-to-back Qatar Stars League titles in the 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons, Qatar achieved a number of notable successes, namely guiding the ‘B’ national team to glory at the 2014 WAFF Championship and the 2015 AFC Asian Cup-bound side to victory in the Gulf Cup of Nations in the same year.
But Qatar under-performed at the continental competition in Australia and bowed out in the group stage following consecutive defeats to the UAE, Iran, and Bahrain, prompting the QFA to look for a new coach ahead of the joint qualifiers for the 2018 FIFA World Cup and the 2019 AFC Asian Cup.
Carreno’s first competitive fixture with Qatar is their Russia 2018/UAE 2019 qualification curtain-raiser against the Maldives in Male on June 11.
Qatar have been drawn in Group C in the second round of the joint-qualifiers where they will also face China, Hong Kong, and surprise package Bhutan, who advanced from the preliminary round with a 3-1 aggregate win over Sri Lanka.
The group winners and four best runners-up (total 12 teams) will advance to the 2019 Asian Cup finals and the final round of qualifying for the 2018 World Cup.
The next best 24 teams from the preliminary stage of the joint qualifiers will compete in a separate competition for the remaining slots (12 slots or 11 slots + 1 slot for the host) in the 24-team 2019 Asian Cup finals.
Photo: QFA