Doha: For the legendary former FC Barcelona and Real Madrid striker who still holds the all-time record of goals scored in a single match for Brazil, the 2014 FIFA World Cup is a special tournament indeed.
But although Evaristo de Macedo Filho is hoping for a triumph on home soil for ‘La Canarinha’, he hopes that his goals record against Colombia will stand for a few years yet – or at least until after the tournament.
“Every time that Brazil plays I am of course supporting the team, but I also pray that no one comes close to my record of five goals scored in a single match,” Evaristo said in an interview published on the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy website http://sc.qa/en.
The Rio-born striker is a real bridge between two football-crazy countries, having coached Qatar to their biggest success to date in a FIFA competition at the 1981 FIFA Youth World Championships in Australia.
On the way to the final they stunned his native Brazil 3-2 in the quarter-finals and edged England 2-1 in the semi-finals, before losing out to West Germany in a rain-soaked final.
Evaristo went on to coach Iraq at the 1986 FIFA World Cup Mexic finals, and has fond memories of training sessions with his young Qatari team at Doha Stadium, the first grass pitch in the Gulf region: “When I first arrived in Doha in 1980, it was very small and there was nothing much there so I said to myself – shall I go back? But I stayed and it was good that I did. We played in Doha Stadium, where Pele had played a friendly match with Santos in 1973. When I arrived in Qatar everyone kicked the ball far up the field. I asked: why, don’t you like the ball?’
The man who later coached Brazilian giants Flamengo on three separate occasions quickly got to work and went about identifying young Qatari players with plenty of talent. He names Qatar’s all-time leading goals-scorer Mansour Muftah as the best ever player he worked with for Al Ennabi – The Maroon Boys. Building on the foundations laid in the early eighties, Qatar went on to embark on one of the most successful stints in their national team history, qualifying for the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles and drawing with eventual champions France 2-2 in the opening game, as well as reaching the semi-finals of the 1991 FIFA Under 17 World Championships in Italy and the quarterfinals of the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona four years later.
Evaristo, who was also the coach when Qatar won its first ever Gulf Cup on home soil in 1992, said there was one key factor to success for his side – belief in the seemingly impossible: “When I first arrived in Qatar there was an old team. I thought; with this team we won’t go anywhere. So we made a new team, the team that went to Australia. Before going we had a lengthy training camp in Brazil, where we played friendly matches and formed the team spirit that was needed to do something great.’”
During the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup Brazil last summer, Evaristo was delighted to receive a memento in the form of a photograph of all the players that reached the final in Australia, and who went on to become ambassadors for Qatar’s successful bid for the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar from the Secretary General of the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy, Hassan Al Thawadi, as well as the Executive Director of Communications and Marketing, Nasser Al Khater.
The coach of ‘Al Ennabi’ from 1980-1986, and again in 1992, Evaristo continues to follow his former team and said he was delighted when Qatar was awarded the rights to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup: “I was very happy when Qatar was awarded the 2022 World Cup, and I am sure they will put on a fantastic and memorable tournament. Qatar now needs to build a good team for the home competition, to start from now. They have to build a young team, like we did in 1981.”
Source: http://sc.qa/en
