A sincere conversation with Srechko Katanes

The former head coach of the national team, Srechko Katanes, met with journalist Abdulvosit Bektemirov. During the conversation with Srechko Katanes, we talked for about 2 hours on many topics – tactics in football, the coach's emotions, phenomena in sports, and interesting events in his career. Katanes appears to be a serious and reserved person in front of the media, but our conversation was very interesting and open.

Now let's go back a bit and return to the main topic. The Uzbekistan national team is on its way to the World Cup. The national team officially secured its World Cup spot after the match against the UAE on June 5, but this journey actually began much earlier. Srechko Katanes took over the national team in August 2021 and managed it until January 2025. His health did not allow him to continue his work. Timur Kapadze took Katanes' place, and thanks to the efforts of these two coaches, a historic result was achieved.

How did it all begin?

Returning to the game in Abu Dhabi. After the final whistle of the Australian referee, a real celebration began in the media tribune. Journalists were filled with joy and even tears of happiness. You know what happened at the post-match press conference. As I was leaving the stadium, I remembered that I needed to congratulate Katanes and ask him for his thoughts on today's game. I congratulated him via Messenger, and he shared his thoughts.

After that, we continued to celebrate the victory, and I forgot about Katanes. Two days later, I learned that he had returned to Tashkent and that the national team had invited Srechko Katanes for the game against Qatar during a training session held in "Jar." After that, I immediately invited him for an interview, but he did not respond. After not receiving a reply to my request, everything slipped my mind. Two days later, I received a personal message on Telegram. When I opened the app, Katanes had written:

“Hello. I am in Tashkent. If you want, we can meet somewhere for coffee and have a chat.”

So we agreed on a convenient time and location. Finally, we met.

- Hello. How are you?
- Hello, Mr. Katanes. I am very glad to see you again. Congratulations on qualifying for the World Cup. Uzbekistan will now participate in the mundial.

- Yes, we qualified for the mundial. How are you feeling now?
- Just incredible. I am still euphoric. I still can't fully grasp what has happened, I think.

- Why? (laughs)
- We qualified for the World Cup for the first time. Everyone is happy. The emotions and everything are amazing. A dream that has lasted for several years has finally come true.

About securing the World Cup spot:

- The joy is great, but we need to get used to it. We were getting closer to this result, and it happened. When I qualified for the World Cup with Slovenia, there was also such joy in the country. Now we just need to enjoy the process and live through these moments.

Then Katanes laughed and said, “Today I will be the journalist,” and began to ask me questions.

- What do you think about how the final stage of the qualifiers went? I'm curious about your thoughts on the opponents...
- Honestly, our group was quite good, I think. We didn't play against strong teams like Japan or Korea. True, Iran is also strong, but we have been getting good results against them lately. We play against Qatar frequently. I believe we were lucky with the opponents.

- Yes, you are right. We didn't have to travel far like countries such as Japan or Australia. We only went to Laos once. Overall, everything went well.

Source: championat.asia