Voice of the Trainers | The Message

I was at the World Cup in Qatar and working as a commentator for the BBC when I received a WhatsApp message from Sylvinho.

“How are you? I have an interview with the Albanian Federation in the next few days for the job of head coach. If I am selected, I am counting on you.”

Sylvinho and I have been close friends for many years. We first met in Manchester in 2009. He left Barcelona in the summer to sign for Manchester City for a season and I had already been at the club for a year. I came from Espanyol.

It was a very spontaneous relationship. I was much younger than him – I was 23 while Sylvio was 34. We often bumped into each other – for example at breakfast, where we were among the few players who started the day very early. Our friendship was also influenced by the fact that Sylvio had previously had a very good relationship with Argentinian teammates at his clubs. These included Lionel Messi at FC Barcelona and, during his time at Celta Vigo, Gustavo López, Eduardo Berizzo and Pablo Cavallero.

That’s why he speaks Spanish with a slight Argentinian accent.

During this time together in Manchester, we also lived very close to each other, on the outskirts of the city. Almost every Sunday, Sylvio liked to cook pizza. He invited me to his house, along with the Brazilian players who were at Liverpool, Fábio Aurélio and Lucas Leiva.

“I did not expect his message at the 2022 World Cup. It was a surprise”

A very good friendship developed between the two of us. It has remained so to this day, even though we went our separate ways after a year of playing together at City. But whenever we were in the same place, we met up. That was the case when Sylvio – as a member of Tite’s coaching staff in Brazil – went to England to watch a Brazilian player in the Premier League. He came to my house and stayed.

Still, I didn’t expect the message I spoke about at the 2022 World Cup. It was a surprise, but I said yes.

The next day, in my hotel room in Qatar, still not knowing whether he would be chosen as national coach or not, I started watching clips of Albanian games. I had two jobs: I was at the BBC covering Argentina’s World Cup games, and in the mornings I watched videos about Albania.

With Sylvio’s message, I felt like the time had come to start a new stage in my career. It was time to get into coaching.

In a way, it all started in 2020. In June of that year, I finished my contract at West Ham and moved to Barcelona with my family. At 35, I felt physically good and had no injuries, but in my last few months at West Ham, the thought of leaving crossed my mind. Although it was not a final decision to stop playing, I was clear that I was leaving England. At that point, I had spent nine years at City and three at West Ham.

In the summer of 2020, the pandemic hit. That and the fact that there was nothing in the future that could convince me to keep playing made me make a decision.

“I practically took the whole year off to be in Barcelona. One hundred percent dedicated to my children”

One morning I woke up and said to my wife Christel: “I have already experienced everything I ever dreamed of as a footballer. There is nothing that could motivate me to keep playing.”

She looked at me and asked, “Are you sure?”

I know why she asked me that, because it’s not easy to stop playing when you still think you can keep going. But I had no doubts.

“Yes, this is the end. It’s over.”

I decided to retire from the sport and made it public in October 2020 that I was thinking about becoming a coach. I planned to watch the training sessions of some of the coaches I had during my career as a player.

It was a difficult year, though, because in the 2020/21 season you could practically not go to any training or games because of the pandemic. At the end of the season it was possible to go to some training sessions, but you had to do PCR tests. That made me suspicious if something else were to happen after that. That is, if there were any infections.

So I took practically the whole year off to be in Barcelona, ​​devoting 100 percent to my children: Asier, who is now nine, and Julen, six.

“When we conducted the team analysis in January 2023, we saw a lot of potential in young players”

As a player, football often separates you from your family. There are so many trips, games and training camps. As a father it is not easy, but as a coach it is even harder because sometimes you have to go somewhere alone. I experienced this with many coaches I had as a player.

While I was at home, I was able to be a normal dad. I took them to school every morning, to their extracurricular activities in the afternoons, and to watch some of the school shows. I also watched them play soccer.

Those two years of transition, after I retired and before I started working as a coach, were two very good years. I was able to enjoy my children almost all the time.

Since I started living with Sylvio in Albania, I can still live in Barcelona and spend time with them, but I started to miss important things, even more so because everything happened so quickly in such a short time.

It was not easy to take over a national team knowing that you would have to compete in a difficult qualifying group for Euro 2024. Poland and the Czech Republic were undoubtedly the clear favourites in Group E. But I think when we did the team analysis in January 2023, we saw a lot of potential in the young players.

What do I mean by that? There is a very important generation that emigrated from Albania 30 years ago and whose children were born abroad. These children have now decided to play for and represent their parents’ country. So there is also a very emotional aspect to the national team and a great sense of belonging for many of these children.

“We did a really good job and made a nation happy. IT IS something emotional”

Then we saw that there was a group of important players and we were convinced that we had a chance to qualify for the European Championship. If you had asked me before the qualification if we would finish first, of course I don’t know if we were that optimistic. But we wanted to at least fight for a place and yes, in the end we played really well and won the group.

We did a really good job and made a nation happy. It’s an emotional thing because this is only the second European Championship that Albania has experienced.

For us as a coaching team – we are practically all South Americans – it is a blessing to experience a European Championship. In terms of the stage in Germany, the stadiums and everything connected with the European Championship, this is practically the closest thing to what you experience at a World Cup.

The message is that we will all live the dream of the European Championship with the respect it deserves. We are ready to give our best, as we have been from day one, because we have a difficult group – Italy, Croatia and Spain. But I think we have to come with the dream and the will that a European Championship deserves, to compete and meet the demands of such a competition.

“There is a level of responsibility and workload that did not exist as a footballer”

On a personal level, I approach this new phase as a coach with the same enthusiasm as when I started playing, but I am also aware that I have twenty times more responsibility.

When I’m in training camp, I work practically all day. I start in the morning with videos, sit next to the analyst, watch every training session, every game and filter out a lot of information for Sylvinho. There is a level of responsibility and workload that didn’t exist as a footballer. It’s a big difference, but I love it.

If you have the opportunity to do a job that you enjoy, you can devote as many hours to it as necessary during your workday.

To be honest, I didn’t miss anything when I stopped playing and switched to coaching. I never felt like I regretted it.

I don’t know how far I’ll get, but I’m full of energy and I’m going to make the most of every second. The important time with Asier and Julen has also helped me to regain my strength and enjoy this new stage to the fullest.

Author: The Coaches’ Voice