Renowned Serbian coach Bora Milutinović paid a visit to the Lebanese national soccer team’s training camp in the Qatari capital Doha, where he met his Montenegrin compatriot, head coach Miodrag Radulović, and his staff. The meeting was marked by gratitude for the prior acquaintance and friendship between Milutinović and the “Cedars” coach.
Radulović greatly appreciated this visit from one of the most important coaches in the history of soccer, expressing his delight at accompanying the Lebanese team to their evening training session on the Al-Arkhala pitches. He expressed his admiration for the efforts made by the Lebanese players during training sessions, underlining their remarkable physical condition and their commitment to following their coach’s instructions, which they apply in an exemplary fashion.
Bora Milutinović, aged 79, has enjoyed worldwide renown since the mid-1980s and into the new millennium. Alongside Brazil’s Carlos Alberto Parreira, he is the only one to have coached in five World Cups. However, he made history by coaching five different national teams in five consecutive editions, leading Mexico in 1986, Costa Rica in 1990, the USA in 1994, Nigeria in 1998 and China in 2002. It should be noted that the Chinese team, which he led to the finals for the first and last time in its history, was the only one not to qualify for the World Cup knockout stages under his leadership, earning him the nickname “The Miracle Man.”
In conversation during his visit, Bora evoked his memories of Lebanon when he came with the Chinese team to the 2000 Asian Cup, recalling the archaeological sites he visited and the cultural and historical aspect he discovered in the country.
