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"I left my family in Porto for a hotel room in Tirana", Sylvinho BBC interview: We don't go to Germany to have fun

2024-06-04 15:41:18Sport SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
"I left my family in Porto for a hotel room in Tirana", Sylvinho BBC
Silvinho

Sylvinho could never have imagined he would find himself sitting in front of a laptop taking notes from Wycombe Wanderers' League One games.

After a dinner with the president of the Albanian Football Federation in Milan, the former defender of Arsenal, Barcelona and Manchester City had agreed to take over the national team of the country.

In early 2023, he arrived at his office in Tirana with former City and West Ham defender Pablo Zabaleta and former Middlesbrough midfielder Doriva as assistants.

In total, they watched 240 match clips to arrive at an initial list of 70 footballers, then whittled it down to 39 – and finally 23 – for their Euro 2024 qualifier opener against Poland.

Among them was the then Wycombe winger, Anis Mehmeti.

He had never featured for the Albania team up to that point, but was called up as part of the rebuilding process that Sylvinho began from day one.

"Zaba [Zabaleta] played for a long time in England, so he still has his contacts there and he brought us some information about Mehmet," Sylvinho told BBC Sport.

"We started looking at him in League One but, soon after, he signed for Bristol City in the Championship, making us think, 'OK, the potential we're seeing here, other people are seeing it.'

"We knew that there were many Albanians like him who played abroad."

That hard work paid off.

Despite losing the first leg 1-0 against Poland, Albania remained unbeaten until the end of their season, finishing top of the group and securing Euro qualification with a game to spare.

Such an achievement earned Sylvinho the status of a local hero.

It will be only the second time in their history that the "Eagles" will be in the Euros, after debuting in 2016.

"I live in a hotel that is about 2 km from the Federation building, so sometimes I go home through a beautiful park and meet the fans. They usually come up to me and say 'respect, sir'," smiled the 50-year-old coach.

It will not be easier in Germany, as the Albanians will face the reigning champions, Italy, Croatia and Spain.

"We're not going there to have fun anyway," Sylvinho said. "Our work is not done and, if we have any chance to advance to the knockout phase, we will fight for it in the same way we did in the qualifiers."

Having previously worked as an assistant for the Brazilian national team between July 2016 and April 2019, Sylvinho is no stranger to international football.

However, this has been a completely different experience.

One of his first decisions in charge of Albania was to ditch the 3-5-2 formation adopted by his predecessors and switch to 4-3-3.

There was just one issue he wasn't used to in Albania: he needed a right arm with a left foot to make it work - but he just didn't have it.

So he and his staff delved into the federation's database to look for a player with these characteristics, coming up with two names – one of them being 29-year-old Jasir Asani, who plays in South Korea.

"We were watching videos from his time in Hungarian football and I was thinking, 'who is this?' He had everything we wanted: he was great in one-on-one situations, he could shoot well and he was fast," said Sylvinho.

"So for a good few Saturdays, we had to come to the office at 9am to watch his games because of the time difference."

In the end, it was all worth it.

The player born in North Macedonia had a big impact and finished the qualifiers with three goals and two assists.

Sylvinho strongly believes that none of this would have been possible if he had not decided to leave his family in Porto and move to a hotel room in Tirana.

"They've told me they knew it was going to work the moment I announced I wanted to live here. It has allowed me to fully understand the local identity and to be 100% focused on work", said the coach, whose meetings are mainly held in Italian.

His aggressive attacking style has impressed even the most skeptical fans and pundits, who were initially unconvinced by his previous stints in charge of Lyon and Corinthians.


Në përputhje me standarded JTI

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