Metsu searches for Qatar magic touch

Qatar coach Bruno Metsu, the miracle worker of Senegal’s 2002 World Cup, hopes that an Asian Games gold will preface a successful Asian Cup assault on home turf in 2011.

He knows the punishment for failure is likely to be swift in a Gulf region blessed with sky-high budgets but cursed with wafer-thin patience.

“There is a passion for football in Qatar,” said the 56-year-old Frenchman, who took Senegal to the World Cup quarter-finals, but who has since bounced from one lucrative Middle East assignment to another.

“There are fantastic stadiums, formidable working conditions. But perhaps it’s also tougher here than in Europe because they have such vast means. They don’t wait three months to sack you when things aren’t going well.

“The day after tomorrow, it’s ‘bye-bye, ciao, finished’.”

He also told www.foot365.fr: “Things happen very quickly. There is a lot of pressure, but I like that pressure and the adrenaline. I have great respect for the people of the Gulf.”

Metsu, whose team kick-off the defence of their Asian Games title against Singapore, is into his fifth Gulf assignment in seven years.

He won the Asian Champions League title with Al Ain in the United Arab Emirates in 2003, before a league title triumph with Qatari club Al Gharafa.

A brief spell at Al Ittihad in Saudi Arabia was followed by a two-year spell with the UAE national team, guiding them to a first Gulf Cup before the axe fell after a poor 2007 Asian Cup finals campaign.

Qatar turned to him after Uruguayan coach Jorge Fossati was forced to step down on medical grounds after taking the team to the final round of Asian qualifying for the 2010 World Cup.

But in a section which boasted heavyweights Japan and Australia, Qatar were always outsiders and even Metsu couldn’t work his magic.

Despite Qatar missing out on the World Cup once again, the country’s soccer-mad princes stuck with him.

With a limited talent pool from which to choose, Qatar has flirted with and been seduced by foreign imports.

Uruguayan Sebastian Soria played in the 2006 Asian Games gold-medal winning side and Brazilian-born Fabio Cesar, who once played in Serie A with Napoli, is also a Qatari international.

Soria insists that Metsu has made him a better player.

“Al Gharafa and Bruno took a chance on me and helped me become a better player. Bruno gives you confidence as a player to feel like you can do so much,” said Soria.