Fresh from his successful coaching stint with the Egyptian national side, Roger de Sa flies to Tehran on Sunday to join Carlos Queiroz as assistant coach to the Iranian national side for their 2022 Fifa World Cup campaign.

This will be De Sa’s fourth role coaching with a national team, and his second working with a national squad through a World Cup campaign.

He assisted Queiroz as coach of Egypt as they reached the final of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations, losing on penalties in the final to Senegal.

Queiroz and De Sa will spend a few days in Tehran with the squad ahead of friendlies in Austria, beginning the selection process for the final squad for Iran’s opening World Cup Group B match against England on November in Al Rayyan.

De Sa is pleased to be heading to another World Cup, and says of Iran’s prospects: “Once you qualify for the World Cup you give yourself a realistic chance, and with the tournament being held in Qatar, it evens it out a bit more because you are not playing in Europe, you are not playing in South America, so it is almost a neutral venue [between the major continents].

“The heat and humidity will be a challenge for many of the players. We have a short time to prepare. Ideally, we would have been there [as coaches of Iran] for a year but Carlos knows the team and the players know him, as he coached them in the last two World Cups.”

Queiroz was only appointed Iran coach days ago, replacing Croatian Dragan Skočić after Mehdi Taj was elected as Iranian FA president last month, returning to the position he held from 2016 to 2019.

Iran’s gruelling schedule starts on Tuesday when they assemble in Tehran.

“On Wednesday and Thursday we will start training with the team. On Saturday, we will fly to Austria where we play Uruguay and Senegal. We return to Iran where we continue the scouting process with the team,” De Sa said.

“These two games will give us a good idea. I may fly to Europe to watch some of the players with their clubs, and we will probably train in Dubai for a week before we go to Qatar.”

The former Orlando Pirates coach started his coaching career with Bidvest Wits, after a successful playing career that saw him turning out as a goalkeeper for Bafana Bafana, Mamelodi Sundowns, Moroka Swallows and Wits.

He coached Ajax Cape Town and Platinum Stars among others, working as Bafana goalkeeper coach when Queiroz was with the team from 2000 to 2002. The pair worked together again in 2010 when Queiroz coached Portugal in the 2010 Fifa World Cup in SA, and again for Egypt.

“We had a nine-month gig there in Egypt. When we were called in to work with Egypt, they were out of the top 20 in Africa, which is unusual for a country like Egypt,” De Sa said.

“They were struggling and we managed to get some good results early on. We made it to the final of the Nations Cup, beating a lot of top teams to reach the final and losing to Senegal in a penalty shoot-out.

“We over-achieved in the Nations Cup. By the time we finished, we were fourth or fifth in Africa. We beat Morocco, Ivory Coast and Cameroon, the host team.

“We unfortunately lost the World Cup qualifier to Senegal, again in a penalty shoot-out. Our goal was to qualify for the World Cup, which we did not achieve. We have left a good vibe in Egypt but I could not commit long-term to staying there.”