The Peninsula
Asian Cup winning coach Felix Sanchez yesterday said Qatar’s main ambition is to arrive for the 2022 FIFA World Cup ‘in the right shape’ . The game’s showpiece event will be staged in Qatar in three years from now.
In February this year, Sanchez was at the helm of affairs when Qatar stunned World Cup regulars Japan in the final to lift the Asian Cup title for the first time.
Sanchez - who has groomed most of the senior team players - also has managed the team at the Copa America tournament in Brazil in June this year.
“It’s important to have targets. There are clear targets for this team. The plan for the players is to arrive for the 2022 (FIFA) World Cup in the right shape,” Sanchez said on day two of the “Aspire Academy Global Summit” yesterday. “This is a good target to have,” the Spaniard added.
“It’s not me alone working on this target. The whole country is working on a plan. They have built the Aspire Academy. So there is a plan. Everyone is aware of the (new) target. It (FIFA World Cup) is a very important competition. There is good coordination among QFA, the Aspire Academy and the football clubs,” Sanchez noted.
“Currently we have (World Cup and Asian Cup) qualifiers to play and then the Copa (next year). These are good targets to have,” Sanchez said. “We have a team to build for the World Cup with a competitive edge,” he said.
Sanchez, who joined Aspire Academy to train young football players more than a decade ago, is credited for grooming players of the current senior side that rocked the continent in the 24-team Asian Cup eights months ago.
The Qatar coach revealed he has a significant backroom team members at his disposal. Sanchez said Qatar leaves nothing to chance when it comes to developing the country’s football teams at the junior and senior levels.
“I think we are in a place where we have a lot of facilities. We have the tools we need. We have a lot of staffers who have tools to control the load of the players. We know exactly what they (the players) are doing. We have ways to follow other teams. We have data. We have plans for before or after training. Nowadays all this is very important. Every small thing is important,” Sanchez said.
The Qatar Football Performance Centre - where the Global Summit is currently taking place - has set things in motion for Sanchez and his talented players.
“There can be nothing better than this. We have everything here. This place is useful. It gives us a very big advantage (over other teams in terms of preparations). When you work at a place where you feel comfortable you do well,” Sanchez said with a smile. Sanchez refused to take all credit for assisting Qatar in winning the 2019 Asian Cup.
“Always it is the coach who gets credit but there are a lot of people working in my team. We have a nice group of people who are very professional and they have a lot of knowledge. We have assistant coaches, we have fitness trainers, goalkeeping coaches and the administrative staff, the team manager. They provide what we need to be at our best,” Sanchez said.
Sanchez said his journey started at Aspire Academy, a place where Qatar grooms its future sports stars like Mutaz Essa Barshim, who won the high jump gold medal at recently-concluded IAAF World Athletics Championships, and feared striker Almoez Ali, the ‘Most-Valuable-Player’ of the 2019 Asian Cup.
“In 2006, I joined Aspire Academy for age group national teams. It was a long process (to start with the juniors) and it is a big honour to have this kind of process. To reach the senior team is not usual in football,” Sanchez said.
“When I arrived in Qatar, the Aspire Academy had just begun running operations and it was a big project when I joined the technical staff. I worked on the set up then but it is different now. Things are better. I will not say it was by chance. The way they run things at U-16 or U-17, the way we were playing events. Everything was and is running well,” Sanchez recalled.
“In my career it is obvious that I would not be here if I had not joined Aspire Academy. Now I am coaching the senior team. At Aspire, there are many people from many countries. Everybody contributed. I have been coaching this group since they were 15 or 16 years of age. With some players I have been working since 2008 or 2009. They have been growing from different stages. I have supported and helped them in their development,” he said.
“The players know their way and the way we want to train. That gives us the advantage. At the same time, the most important relationship is with the game on the field. A lot of them play together (at clubs). That helps. They have trained together for many years. They play together at the clubs.
“I don’t know if they see me as a father or a brother. If has been a long time. At the end of the day, they are football players. The confidence is there. They know who they are and what the country wants. They have a better atmosphere,” he added. Sanchez said the gap between Qatar and the top-ranked teams is narrowing.
“The gap is smaller between Qatar and the rest. In the last 10-15, years we have improved. We have tried to compete not just against the top Asian teams but against top Europeans also. We are closing but we need to cover so much more. Our last experience was very good as to how we played against the top Asian sides,” Sanchez said.
“Now we know we don’t need to win the first game. There is trust, there is belief, and then there is patience. This process is what was the most important thing for us. It takes time to build a strong team,” Sanchez said. “We play to win every single game. If we lose its not the end of the world. We push and we focus and try to manage the emotions,” he said.