The Ghana team fired its coach at the end of March and 59 days before the 2026 World Cup announced his replacement. The experienced Carlos Queiroz was presented as the new coach by the federation of the African country. It is not just any choice, since the 73-year-old technical director has great prestige at the national team level and He will direct his fifth World Cup, as if that were not enough, in a row. The great career of the Mozambique-born coach is demonstrated in another statistic: it will be the eleventh team he will take charge of.
To understand this whole path you have to go to September 2021 when Otto Addo took over in Ghana. The following year, the Ghanaian qualified for Qatar 2022 and was there in Group H, in which they lost to Portugal, defeated South Korea and lost to Uruguay. This meant elimination in the first round. Then it would be the turn of the 2023 African Cup of Nations, in which Ghana was also eliminated in the group stage.
In November 2024, the team failed to qualify for the 2025 African Cup of Nations and, despite the results not being as expected, Addo continued in his position. The credit for the coach came when Ghana qualified for the 2026 World Cup. However, this was not to last. In November 2025, friendlies for the next World Cup began and The Black Stars lost four consecutive games: 2-0 against Japan; 1-0 against South Korea; 5-1 against Austria and 2- with Germany.
In this context, from the Ghana Football Association They decided to fire Otto Addo 72 days before the World Cup, but just 14 days later they announced a new coach. This is Carlos Queiroz. The one born in Nampula, Portuguese East Africa, which is now Mozambique, was announced this Monday as the brand new coach. Without a formal presentation image, he left a message that was communicated through the official website of the Ghanaian federation.
“With deep gratitude, responsibility and humility, I take on this new chapter. Football has given me a life full of challenges, lessons and unforgettable experiences around the world. Today, I accept this mission with the same passion and commitment that has guided me throughout my career. Ghana is a nation of talent, pride and football passion. I come with respect for its history and faith in its future. Together, with unity, discipline and ambition, we will work to honor the expectations of a great football nation. This is not just any job, it is a mission. And I am willing to give all my experience and knowledge once again, at the service of the game and the happiness of the people,” Queiroz expressed.
Queiroz was coach of Portugal in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and also coached Iran in Brazil 2014, Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022. With his presence in Ghana, he will once again be at a World Cup and his career accompanies him enough to have been taken into account by the Executive Council of the Ghana Football Association.
His career was divided between clubs and national teams. He started in 1981 in the youth teams of Sport Lisboa e Olivais and, in 1982, of Clube de Futebol Os Belenenses, both in Portugal. In 1984 he served as a field assistant at Estoril Praia and that same year he joined the Portuguese youth teams where he was an assistant coach in the first year. He then took charge of the Under 16, 17, 18 and 20 teams, and In 1991 he took the reins of the senior team for the first time.
After being left out of the 1994 World Cup in the United States with the Portuguese, Queiroz became the coach of Sporting Lisbon, where he was until 1996. That same year he went to coach MetroStars, from the United States, a team that today is known as New York Red Bull. After a year in North America he coached Nagoya Grampus, from Japan, and in 1999 he was chosen by the United Arab Emirates to have his second experience as a national team coach. After a year, he became coach of Saudi Arabia and then South Africa.
By 2002, Queiroz had another turn. Alex Ferguson chose him as his field assistant at Manchester United and a year later he became coach of Real Madrid. As he did not achieve the established objectives at Merengue, he was dismissed and the following year he returned to United to once again perform the role of Ferguson’s assistant.
After his experience in the two European clubs, the coach was chosen again to lead the Portuguese senior team. There he qualified for South Africa 2010 and directed his first World Cup. But the Portuguese’s dream of repeating the performance of Germany 2006 in which they finished fourth ended in the round of 16 with a 1-0 defeat against Spain. Shortly after, he was removed from office and was about to begin a new challenge.
In 2011, Queiroz agreed to be Iran’s new coacha selection that was going to be very important in his life. There he achieved the goal of qualifying the team for the 2014 World Cup. Although he could not pass the group stage, they renewed his contract for four more years and in that part he lived a unexpected situation. After the elimination in the quarterfinals of the Asia Cup, He left the position, but three days later, he was rehired by the Iranian federation and managed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
In this way, he managed his third consecutive World Cup and a year later, he finally announced that he was not going to continue in the position. For Queiroz, a new experience presented itself in his life: travel to South America to take charge of the Colombian team. His passage was discreet and after almost two years he reached an agreement with the Colombian federation to separate himself from the national team.
In September 2021, he was signed by Egypt. However, after failing to qualify for the 2022 World Cup, he was fired. Anyway, he had his revenge. Iran reappeared in the coach’s life. With three months left before the start of the World Cup, Queiroz once again became the national team’s coach. In this way, he directed his fourth world championship in a row, but after the tournament, he left office.
Qatar and Oman were his last two experiences until the Ghana announcement. The Football Association reported that “Queiroz immediately begins preparing the Black Stars for the tournament, which starts on June 11, 2026.”
Ghana will be in group L and will play its first match against Panama, then against England and will close against Croatia. Queiroz’s election does not seem to be improvised. The coach is recognized for his international experience and is usually among the coaches considered by African and Asian federations for reorganization or change processes.
