Cape Town - Fresh from his successful coaching stint with the Egyptian national team, Roger de Sa flies has joined Carlos Queiroz as assistant coach to the Iranian national side for their World Cup campaign.
This will be De Sa’s fourth role coaching a national team, and his second working while at a World Cup.
With mere weeks until kickoff in Qatar, the coaches will spend a few days in Tehran, the capital of Iran, with the players ahead of friendlies in Austria, beginning the selection process for the final World Cup squad.
De Sa is pleased to be heading to another World Cup, and says of Iran’s prospects: “Once you qualify for the World Cup you give yourself a realistic chance, and with the tournament being held in Qatar, it evens it out a bit more because you are not playing in Europe, you are not playing in South America, so its almost a neutral venue.
"The heat and humidity will be a challenge for many of the players in the tournament. We have a short time to prepare, not ideal, ideally we would have been there for a year but Carlos knows the team, and the players know him, as he coached them in the last two World Cups.”
The gruelling schedule starts Tuesday when they assemble in Tehran. “Wednesday and Thursday we start training with the team. Saturday we train again, and then we fly to Austria, where we play Uruguay and Senegal,” De Sa said.
"We return to Iran where we continue the scouting process with the team. These two games will give us a good idea. I may fly to Europe to watch some of the players with their clubs, and we we will probably train in Dubai for a week before we go to Qatar.”
De Sa started his coaching career with Wits, after a successful playing career that saw him represent Bafana Bafana, Mamelodi Sundowns, Moroko Swallows and Wits.
He went on to coach Orlando Pirates, Ajax Cape Town and Platinum Stars among others, working as Bafana goalkeeper coach when Queiroz was with the team from 2000-2002.
The pair worked together again in 2010 when Queiroz coached Portugal at the 2010 World Cup, and then in 2021 De Sa joined Queiroz with the Egyptian national team.
“We had a nine month gig there. When we were called in to work with Egypt they were out of the top twenty in Africa, which is unusual for a country like Egypt, so they were struggling, and we managed to get some good results early on,” De Sa said.
"We made it to the final of the AFCON, beating a lot of top teams to reach the final, which we lost to Senegal on a penalty shootout. We over-achieved in the Cup of Nations; by the time we finished we were fourth or fifth in Africa. We beat Morrocco, Ivory Coast and Cameroon, the host team.
"The World Cup qualifier we unfortunately lost again to Senegal in a penalty shootout. Our goal was to qualify for the World Cup, which we did not achieve. We have left a good vibe in Egypt but I could not commit long-term to staying there.”
De Sa is one of just a handful of athletes to have represented his country in three sports, and in the same year played soccer, indoor soccer and basketball for South Africa.
He sees himself as a friend to the players. “When I become a coach, priority number one is that I am a human being and so is the player - that is number one. I think Carlos is the same. Many coaches forget that, I think. I will be their coach for a year or two maybe, but we can be friends until we die,” he said.