Carlos Queiroz coached Ghana against Panama in the 2026 World Cup opener on Thursday morning, and the 73-year-old Portuguese coach matched a rare record by reaching a fifth consecutive World Cup edition. He now stands alongside Bora Milutinović for coaching five different teams across five straight tournaments.
Carlos Queiroz and Ghana
Queiroz’s latest World Cup assignment came after the Ghana Football Association appointed him in April, following the dismissal of Otto Addo after unconvincing results in friendlies. His appearance against Panama kept a run alive that began with Portugal at the 2010 World Cup and continued with Iran in 2014, 2018 and 2022.
That sequence makes Ghana his fifth straight World Cup team. It also puts him in a narrow group of coaches who have been trusted on the sport’s biggest stage across more than a decade, with the same national-team job never lasting long enough to define the entire run.
Bora Milutinović Record
Milutinović’s mark covered five different national teams in five consecutive World Cups between 1986 and 2002, and Queiroz has now matched that line exactly. The difference is in the calendar: Queiroz’s stretch has run from 2010 to 2026, with four teams before Ghana.
He is still one appearance short of the absolute coaching record in World Cup editions. Carlos Alberto Pereira holds that mark with six editions, leaving Queiroz tied for one rare standard but not alone at the top of the broader list.
Queiroz After Oman
The Ghana appointment also pulled Queiroz back into the global spotlight after his last spell with Oman. For Ghana, the move brought in a coach whose tournament record already spans Portugal and Iran, and whose next result in 2026 will add to a record that now sits level with Milutinović rather than above it.
For Queiroz, the opener against Panama was more than a first match with Ghana. It was the moment he joined one of the tightest coaching clubs in World Cup history, with five straight tournaments and five different national teams now attached to his name.
