Born in
Angoche,
Nampula,
Portuguese Mozambique (Nampula Province was known as Moçambique at that time), to Portuguese parents, Queiroz had an undistinguished professional career as a footballer, playing as a 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, but 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. He was appointed on a two-year contract, only 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. By mid-season, the team topped the
La Liga table and was in contention for the
Copa del Rey and the
Champions League. However, they lost their final five matches and finished fourth, with
Valencia winning the title. They 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, the first time in five years without a major trophy. After just ten months at the
Santiago Bernabéu, Queiroz was sacked in May 2004.
Return to Manchester United on 12 August 2007 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. against
Manchester City on 10 February 2008 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, but he remained with Manchester United to help them win the Premier League in 2007. Queiroz was often 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 late 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 heavily involved in the
2007–08 Premier League title race, five points clear at the top, with just 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. However, 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. Portugal struggled under his management during the qualification for the
2010 World Cup. Despite kick-starting their
World Cup qualification campaign with a comfortable 4–0 win against
Malta in
Ta' Qali, Queiroz's team failed to win any of their subsequent four matches. Home form was poor, with a 3–2 defeat to
Denmark followed by 0–0 draws against
Albania and
Sweden. Together with another goalless draw in Stockholm against Sweden, these results left Portugal with only six points out of a possible 15 and on the brink of missing a major international tournament for the first time since 1998. Building on an improving reliability in defence, Portugal defeated Albania in Tirana 2–1 with a late goal, tied 1–1 against Denmark on 5 September, beat
Hungary 1–0 and again 3–0 in the return match, and finally defeated Malta 4–0. These results, together with a defeat of Sweden to Denmark, enabled Portugal to finish the campaign second in the group with 19 points, one ahead of Sweden, and qualify for the
UEFA play-offs. They played Bosnia and Herzegovina in home and away legs. Portugal won 1–0 in Lisbon and followed up with a 1–0 victory in
Zenica, and as a result they advanced to the finals of the
2010 World Cup. At the World Cup, Portugal drew 0–0 with the
Ivory Coast but then beat
North Korea 7–0, the heaviest victory in the World Cup since
Germany's 8–0 defeat of
Saudi Arabia in 2002. This rout virtually guaranteed Portugal passage to the second round and a second goalless draw with
Brazil confirmed qualification. In the second round, they lost to
Spain 1–0 and were knocked out having failed to score in three of their four World Cup matches. 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.
2014 World Cup Iran, under Queiroz, began their
World Cup qualification campaign successfully, defeating the
Maldives 4–0 in the first leg of their
second round of qualifiers. After winning 5–0 on aggregate, Iran advanced to the
third round of qualifiers, where they were drawn with
Indonesia,
Qatar and
Bahrain. Iran highlighted their position at the top of
their group by defeating Bahrain 6–0 at home in the
Azadi Stadium, as well as inviting former
German youth international, Ashkan Dejagah, who scored twice on his debut against Qatar. After a 4–1 win at Indonesia, Iran qualified for the final round of direct qualifiers, the
fourth round. In the fourth round, Iran were drawn with
South Korea, Qatar,
Uzbekistan, and
Lebanon in
their group. Queiroz made new foreign-based additions to his squad, adding players such as Reza Ghoochannejhad to his team. Iran started their fourth round of Asian qualifiers with a 1–0 win in Uzbekistan.
Team Melli then drew Qatar and lost in Lebanon before defeating South Korea at the Azadi on 16 October with a goal from captain
Javad Nekounam. After a 1–0 loss in Tehran against Uzbekistan, Iran defeated Qatar 1–0 in
Doha and Lebanon 4–0 at home. In their last qualification match, Iran defeated South Korea 1–0 in
Ulsan Munsu with a goal from European-based Ghoochannejhad, resulting in their
qualification to the 2014 World Cup as group winners with 16 points. Thus, Iran became the third team that Queiroz managed to qualify for the
World Cup, having reached the 2002 edition with South Africa and the 2010 edition with Portugal, leading the latter to a knockout stage finish. 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 late 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, his 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.
2015 Asian 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. 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 underdog
Iraq, who they had beaten weeks prior in a friendly match. Having received a controversial red card in the first half from referee
Ben Williams, Iran led a valiant effort with ten men, scoring two goals late in
extra time to draw the match 3–3. In the ensuing penalty shootout, Iran lost 7–6 in
sudden death.
2018 World Cup 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. 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, he 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 a late own goal from
Aziz Bouhaddouz, but 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, but 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, but Spain's injury-time equaliser in a 2–2 draw with Morocco meant they qualified with Portugal.
2019 Asian Cup On 23 September 2018, Queiroz extended his contract until the
2019 AFC Asian Cup, hoping to win Iran's first continental title since
1976.
Colombia On 7 February 2019, Queiroz took over as the new manager of
Colombia on a three-year contract. He was the only European and African coaching a South American national team, and was the fourth European manager to be in charge of the Colombian team after
Friedrich Donnenfeld,
Toza Veselinović and
Blagoje Vidinić. His stint with Colombia began with the
2019 Copa América, where Colombia took first place in their group with a perfect nine points, including a 2–0 win over Argentina. However, Colombia was knocked out by Chile in the last eight, where Colombia was saved with two goals for Chile being disallowed but failed bitterly in the penalty shootout. Colombia also began the
2022 World Cup qualifiers with hope to make it their third in a row for the second time, and Colombia appeared to be on the right path where they beat neighbor Venezuela and held Chile. However, when matches resumed following the
COVID-19 pandemic, Colombia's performance slipped disastrously, with a 0–3 home loss to Uruguay (its worst ever home loss in 82 years) before being shockingly thrashed 1–6 by Ecuador, the biggest ever defeat, and this finally put the end to Carlos Queiroz's reign as Colombia's boss.
Egypt On 8 September 2021, the
Egyptian Football Association announced the signing of Carlos Queiroz to replace
Hossam El Badry.
2021 Africa Cup of Nations At the beginning of the tournament, the Egyptian team suffered a loss against
Nigeria in the first round of Group D of the
African Nations Cup. Egypt defeated
Guinea Bissau with a goal scored by
Mohamed Salah in the second round of Group D. In the third round of group D, Egypt defeated
Sudan with a goal scored by
Mohamed Abdel Moneim, finishing with 6 points in the group and qualifying for the round of 16. The Egyptian national team qualified for the quarter-finals after defeating
Ivory Coast 5–4 in a penalty shootout after a goalless draw in the round of 16. In the quarter-final match, Egypt won 2–1 against
Morocco. In the semi-final match, Egypt qualified for the
final by defeating the host nation
Cameroon 3–1 on penalties. This win marked the first time that Queiroz had guided a national team into the final of a competitive football tournament. However, Queiroz could not achieve the glory when Egypt lost to
Senegal after a penalty shootout.
2022 World Cup qualification Egypt qualified for the
third round of the World Cup qualifications to face Senegal for a spot in the World Cup in Qatar. However, after a 1–0 win in
Cairo, and a 1–0 loss in
Dakar, Egypt lost again on penalties; hence, they failed to reach the final competition. He later agreed with the Egyptian Football Association to terminate his contract by mutual consent.
Return to Iran On 7 September 2022, Queiroz was rehired for a second spell as Iran coach ahead of the
2022 FIFA World Cup, his third World Cup with the country. His appointment was promised as part of
Mehdi Taj's successful campaign for a second spell as president of the
Football Federation Islamic Republic of Iran. At the World Cup in Qatar, Iran were eliminated in the group stage, following a 6–2 loss to
England that went down as the biggest defeat Iran has ever suffered in its World Cup history, a 2–0 win over
Wales and a 1–0 defeat to the
United States. For Queiroz's Iran team, the World Cup took place against the backdrop of the
Mahsa Amini protests back home. Queiroz said that his players had the right to protest as long as it conformed with the regulations of the tournament. He took issue with BBC reporter
Shaimaa Khalil asking Iran player
Mehdi Taremi for his opinion on the protests, and questioned her on whether she would ask the other teams in Iran's group about the
British and American withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Qatar Queiroz was appointed manager of the
Qatar national team in February 2023, succeeding
Félix Sánchez, who led them at the
2022 FIFA World Cup which they hosted. He signed a contract until the
2026 World Cup. On 6 December 2023, after twelve matches with Queiroz charge, consisting of four victories, three draws and four losses, the
Qatar Football Association announced that his contract had been terminated by mutual agreement, and he had been replaced by
Tintín Márquez.
Oman On 15 July 2025, Queiroz became the head coach of
Oman. Under his tenure, Oman did not qualify for the
2026 FIFA World Cup, finishing last in their
fourth-round qualification group after drawing with Qatar and losing to the United Arab Emirates. On 22 March 2026, Queiroz stepped down from the Omani national team reportedly due to the region instability following the
2026 Iran war.
Ghana On 13 April 2026, Queiroz was appointed head coach of
Ghana national team ahead of their participation in the 2026 FIFA World Cup. ==Controversy==