DOHA: Qatar’s footballers call the national team a “family” and coach Felix Sanchez is the patriarch who has guided raw young players to be ready for a World Cup battle.
Under Sanchez, Qatar have already caused a major surprise once at a major tournament in the Middle East, beating Japan 3-1 in the final to take the Asian Cup in 2019.
Now, under their 46-year-old taskmaster, the Al-Annabi (burgundy) are dreaming again.
The Spaniard has spent 16 years coaching at various levels in Qatar, having learned his trade over 10 years with Barcelona’s youth teams, just like Luis Enrique and Pep Guardiola.
Sanchez arrived in Qatar in 2006 to join the Gulf state’s Aspire Academy, where young athletes are nurtured in the hope that they will become world beaters.
“I felt privileged at Barcelona, but I could see that I would not grow any more as a coach there,” Sanchez told the Spanish football magazine Panenka in 2019.
Sanchez was invited to Qatar by Josep Colomer, the former chief of Barcelona’s training centre who had become head of recruitment at Aspire. Sanchez could see “a path to progress”.
Students live at the Aspire Academy so Sanchez made his football proteges train twice a day. “More than was normal in Europe,” he said.
In 2010, Qatar made football history when it was awarded the 2022 World Cup.
Sanchez and his Spanish assistants Sergio Alegre, Alberto Mendez-Villanueva and Carlos Domenech Monforte were given the task of guiding a new generation of footballers.
Sanchez took over the national U19 team in 2013 and won the Asian title with them a year later. Five of the players were in the side that he first managed at Aspire.
He later took on the U20 side, the U23s and became coach of the national side in 2017.
Winning the Asian Cup has bolstered Qatar’s hopes that they can get past the group stage when the World Cup starts on Nov 20.
It will be a tough call against the Netherlands, Senegal and Ecuador, who they play in the tournament’s opening match.
Sanchez’s tactic of keeping the squad secluded in Europe since June has had mixed results so far.
Ahmad al-Tayeb, a commentator for the Al-Kass sports channel, said Sanchez rarely shows emotion, whether in victory or defeat.
“He is with his players as though he is one of them and ready to correct individual and collective mistakes,” said Tayeb.
“His success has been to get the same kind of football that he taught for 10 years with the Barcelona youth teams,” said the Barcelona sports daily Mundo Deportivo.
“The game is based on keeping the ball, the players’ mobility and two wingers to cover as much ground as possible.”
The two wingers are Akram Afif and Almoez Ali, who have both known Sanchez for years.
“His style is clearly attacking but he can adapt if the team do not get possession,” added Sanchez’s friend Xavi Hernandez, the current Barcelona coach, who was a player and then coach for Doha side Al-Sadd.
Abdullah Mubarak, coach for Qatari club Al-Markhiya, said that Sanchez has built a “friendly and family” atmosphere in the national side.
“This helps him to know the skills, the situation and mental state of his players,” said Mubarak.
“He is like a father and a brother in a family which gives the team a maturity on and off the field. And that makes a big difference.” – AFP
