New Asian Destination for Sanchez; Emerges as Successor to Queiroz as Bahrain Coach

Felix Sanchez has arrived in Bahrain and been introduced as the new head coach of the national team.

According to "Varzeh Se", Sanchez is a well-known coach whose name was raised more seriously than ever around the bench of the Iranian national team in 2023, after the end of cooperation with the Qatar national team, but his negotiations with the football federation did not reach a conclusion, so his professional path was extended to South America and then Qatar club football.

Sanchez, who led Qatar to the 2019 Asian Cup championship, left the country's national team after his contract expired in December 2022, at which time the Iranian Football Federation negotiated with the Spanish coach to replace Carlos Queiroz. According to the reports of that time, the negotiations did not reach a conclusion regarding the duration of the contract and financial issues.

Iran finally chose another path and Sanchez accepted the leadership of the Ecuadorian national team in March 2023 and sat on the bench of this team in the 2024 Copa America.

Now this 50-year-old coach has returned to the national football of the region and this time in Bahrain, a team that decided to change the head coach after being eliminated from the group stage of the Persian Gulf Nations Cup and recording three defeats against Qatar, UAE and Yemen.

Sanchez has a history in Qatar that is promising for Bahrainis: the Asian Championship in 2019 and participation in the 2022 World Cup, and of course his experience in the World Cup, which was accompanied by three defeats in the group stage, and his mission in Bahrain, considering the limited distance until the 2027 Asian Nations Cup, will not have much time for trial and error.

Now, this time, Sanchez is on the bench of Bahrain and while he has to prepare his new team for the 2027 Nations Cup and 2030 World Cup qualifiers, he may face Iran again.