“No one in Qatar lives for football”

Khalid Salman. Now everyone knows his name. Well, maybe not his name, but his words. Salman said in the German documentary ‘Geheimsache Katar’ that homosexuals “have a defect in their brains‘. As a result, he will forever be known as the ‘World Cup Ambassador’ who showed the true face of Qatar. Case closed.

The idea of ​​bringing Salman forward seemed so good. He was one of the stars of the Qatar football team that played in the 1981 World Cup final. You read that right: Qatar, the country with no football tradition, belonged to the top of the world at the start of the eighties. Then with the promises.

The fairy tale of Arab football took place in Australia, thanks to a Brazilian: Evaristo de Macedo. A living legend, although his name may not immediately ring a bell.

Evaristo was Barcelona’s savior when Johan Cruijff, as 10-year-old ‘Jopie’, sent balls past Ajax’s training ground. He was the FC Barcelona striker who broke the supremacy of Real Madrid in the 1950s. If Evaristo is not mentioned in the same breath as Pelé, Vava or Garrincha, it may be because he has never played in the World Cup.

And this while he scored five goals in a duel with Colombia in the run-up to the 1958 World Cup in Sweden, still unequaled in the jersey of Brazil. Josep Samitier, then Barcelona technical director, was in the stands that day. He immediately shoved Evaristo a contract under his nose.

Evaristo went to Catalonia, on the condition that he be allowed to travel to Sweden with Brazil for the World Cup. However, this verbal agreement proved worthless when Spain failed to qualify and Barcelona had to participate in the Spanish Cup tournament during the World Cup.

The striker adapted and saw from afar how Brazil became world champions for the first time with 17-year-old star Pele. Evaristo was never recalled again.

In Catalonia he became a living legend, thanks in part to a Barcelona man’s first hat-trick against almighty Real. His goals helped the club win two domestic titles, a domestic cup and two final victories in the Intercity Fairs Cup, the predecessor of the UEFA Cup.

But Evaristo will be remembered for his 1960 dip against Real Madrid in the first round of European Cup I.

Thanks to this goal, Real tasted the bitter taste of elimination for the first time, after winning the first five editions of the most important cup tournament in Europe.

He was quickly forgiven, because two years later, Evaristo carried out the already sensitive transfer to Real Madrid, General Franco’s club.

This Evaristo started working in Doha in 1980, with seven Brazilian youth coaches in his wake. What he found in the Persian Gulf had nothing to do with modern-day Qatar. There were no shiny skyscrapers yet, nor fancy training complexes with bright green grass.

Football was played on the beach and on sandy pitches, with sometimes a barren blade of grass. But that wasn’t the problem: “Why do you keep throwing that ball in the air?” asked Evaristo. “You don’t like football?”

Success came quickly. In 1981, Qatar and its Brazilian coach were allowed to prepare for their first World Cup in football history, which was still in its infancy. The Youth World Cup, the ancestor of the Under-20 World Cup, to be precise.

Evaristo taught his players to play on the ground and find their way to goal with combinations. And he taught them the offside trap, as the Dutch national team introduced it to the world in 1974.

As the World Cup approached in Australia, he took his team to Brazil to train for a month and play no less than ten exhibition games. It paid off.

In the first group match in Brisbane against strong Poland, Qatar already managed to make a splash with a 1-0 win. A 1-1 draw against the United States proved enough for the quarter-finals, despite the 2-0 defeat against Uruguay by “Prince” Enzo Francescoli.

It turned out that was just the beginning. Brazil, home of national coach Evaristo, awaited the quarter-finals. It has become Khalid Salman’s match.

Salman’s enthusiastic and unbridled passion, like Marco Tardelli in the 1982 World Cup final, was perhaps even more beautiful than his clear hat-trick against the Brazilians.

And the fairy tale wasn’t over yet, because England also had to believe in the semi-finals. This time the main role was not for Salman – he even kicked a penalty against the post – but for his attacking buddy Badr Bilal.

Bilal had been in the air for a while when the cross finally came to him. He hadn’t doubted for a second what he would do. Thousands of times he had already done it on the beaches of his native country, now too. The bicycle kick is pure beauty, executed in style, like Marco van Basten later in De Meer.

The English are missing chance after chance, until Mike Small (later active for the Go Ahead Eagles and NAC) made it even more exciting. It’s too late: Qatar wins 2-1 and writes history by becoming the first Asian team to reach the final of a football World Cup.

After the shattering elimination of favorites Brazil and England, everyone expects something from the Qatari. Film crews head to training, where the mustachioed national coach lets his players dribble around large orange road cones.

Striker Badr Bilal, already good for two goals in the group stage, even seems to speak a pretty word of English. Isn’t living like a pro in Europe the dream of all Qataris? “No one dreams of it”, Bilal helps the journalist out of the dream. “We love to play football, but no one in Qatar lives for football.”

The interview with Badr Bilal and national coach Evaristo is included in an Australian television retrospective of 1981 on the Youth World Cup. The full show can be seen on Youtube (from 1.49.40). Highlights of Brazil-Qatar, England-Qatar and the West Germany-Qatar final can also be seen on this show.

The comfortable conditions for a resident of Qatar are probably the reason why the 1981 promise was never fully fulfilled. In 1984, the team went to the Olympics for the first time. In Los Angeles, Evaristo’s team starts with an honorable 2-2 against the last winner, Michel Platini’s France, but that’s all.

The World Cup in Mexico is also out of reach. For Qatar then, because Evaristo – who was also national coach of Brazil for a while – is there, as national coach of Iraq.

In 1992, he once again returned to Qatar to lead the country to the Olympic Games. Not without reason, because these Games are organized in the city where he celebrated his greatest successes as a player, in Barcelona.

But to get to Camp Nou, he must survive the group stage first. It succeeded, despite a 2-0 loss to eventual Spanish champions, with Luis Enrique and Pep Guardiola in the ranks.

Evaristo enjoys every minute, but is unable to direct the ball into the goal from the bench. The adventure ends against Poland, the team against which it all started eleven years earlier in Brisbane.

For example, reaching the 1981 Youth World Cup final for the 2019 Asian title remains the pinnacle in Qatari football history. A final which, by the way, was lost 4-0 against West Germany.

Even before the ball rolled once on the Sydney cricket ground, Qatar didn’t stand a chance. A deluge of rain had turned the field into a pool of mud. No Qatari had ever played football under these conditions. “This final should never have been played,” Evaristo said after the game.

In the end, Qatar sank after all. Just like star Salman in his interview with the German journalist many years later.