How ex-Arsenal defender Sylvinho became Albanian hero

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

After a dinner with the Albanian FA president in Milan, the former Arsenal, Barcelona and Manchester City full-back had agreed to take over the country’s national team.

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

In total they watched 240 clips of games to get to an initial list of 70 footballers, then cutting it to 39 - and finally to 23 - for their opening match with Poland in the Euro 2024 qualifiers.

Among them was then Wycombe winger Anis Mehmeti.

He had never featured for Albania's senior side until that point, but was called up as part of the rebuilding process Sylvinho started from day one.

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

“We started watching him in League One, but, right after it, he signed with Bristol City in the Championship, leading us to think, ‘OK, the potential we’re seeing here, others are seeing as well'.

"We knew there were many Albanians like him playing abroad.”

That hard work paid off.

Despite losing their first game 1-0 against Poland, Albania went unbeaten until the end of their campaign, finishing top of their group and securing qualification to the Euros with one game to go.

Such an achievement earned Sylvinho local hero status.

It will be only the second time in their history that the Eagles will be at the Euros, after making their debut in 2016.

“I live in a hotel that’s around 2km from the FA building, so sometimes I walk back home through a beautiful park and meet the fans. They usually come to me and say, ‘respect, Mister,’” the 50-year-old coach smiled.

It won’t get any easier in Germany, after a draw that placed the Albanians alongside defending champions Italy, Croatia and Spain.

“We are not going there to have fun anyway,” Sylvinho said. “Our job is not done and, if we have any chance of advancing to the knockout stage, we will fight for it the same way we did in the qualifiers.”

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

This has been a completely different experience, however.

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

There was only one issue he was not used to in his home country: he needed a left-footed right winger to make it work - but simply did not have it.

So he and his staff dived into the federation database to look for a player with these characteristics, ultimately 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 like, ‘who is this one?’ He had everything we wanted: he was great in one-on-one situations, could shoot well and was quick,” Sylvinho detailed.

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

In the end, it was all worth it.

Asani proved to be a real coup from the former left-back. The North Macedonia-born player made a massive impact and finished the qualifiers with three goals and two assists to his name.

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

“They’ve told me that they realised this would work out the moment I announced I’d like to live here. It has allowed me to fully understand the local identity and be 100% focused on the work,” said the coach, whose meetings are mostly conducted in Italian.

His aggressive attacking style has impressed even the most sceptical fans and pundits, who were not initially convinced by his previous tenures at the helm of Lyon and Corinthians.

Albania have, in particular, made headlines for the number of screamers they’ve scored on the road to Germany.

“They really know how to hit the ball from distance, they have it in them and love it, so I encourage them to do it," Sylvinho said.

"If they feel that’s the best thing to do, please shoot it on goal!”