Carlos Queiroz, currently the Colombia manager, was Sir Alex Ferguson assistant coach, and was later appointed at Real Madrid in 2003. He was also in charge of Portugal and Iran, but before all this happened, he was once the manager at Nagoya Grampus.
It was the summer of 1996 when Nagoya appointed him as their new manager, after Arsène Wenger moved to Arsenal.
The then 43-year-old Portuguese coach, who had won back-to-back FIFA World Youth Championships with U-20 Portugal, successfully took over, building on Wenger’s organized brand of football and helping Nagoya to compete for the title until the final stretch of the season. Grampus ultimately finished second, after Kashima Antlers, but won the “Suntory Cup Champion Final,” a competition played among the winners of the league and the league cup, beating Kashima in the final.
Queiroz remained in charge the following season, but left the club after finishing only twelfth in the First Stage and fifth in the Second Stage.
In his year and a half in Nagoya, Queiroz couldn’t achieve much in term of trophies, but after gaining experience in J.League, Queiroz eventually became a world-class manager as his performance with national teams and top clubs showed through the years.
