Pablo Zabaleta named assistant to fellow Man City icon for Albania national team
Manchester City legend Pablo Zabaleta has become the assistant manager of the Albania national team.
He has been called up by his former City team-mate Sylvinho where they will together form a joint Argentine and Brazilian coalition to hopefully propel Albania into the major tournaments. Zabaleta won two Premier League titles, the FA Cup, and the League Cup over the course of nine successful years at the Citizens.
However, the ex-West Ham defender will now be hoping to replicate that success with the Mediterranean side.
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“Albania has reached an agreement with coach Sylvio Mendes Campos Junior to take over the leadership of our national team,” a statement from the Albanian Football Association said.
“Known to the public as Sylvinho, [he] has selected Pablo Zabaleta and the Brazilian Dorival Guidoni Junior [Doriva] as his assistants. The agreement between the AFL and the new staff headed by Sylvinho foresees an 18-month duration until the end of Euro 2024 and the financial aspect will be based on the results and the achievement of the objectives.
“The agreement has at its core the achievement of the only objective that Albania has in these qualifiers, the qualification for the finals of Euro 2024.
Do you think Pablo Zabaleta and Sylvinho can guide Albania into Euro 2024? Let us know in the comments section below
“In the event of the achievement of the objective, it has been agreed that the coach and his staff will benefit from significant bonuses.” Albania have only ever reached one major tournament over the course of their history.
They qualified for Euro 2016 but failed to navigate their way out of the group stages, despite finishing with the same number of points as eventual winners Portugal, who only progressed into the knockout stages as they scored more goals than Albania.
The Eagles have a decent opportunity to qualify for Euro 2024 in Germany. They will have to navigate their way past Poland, Czech Republic, the Faroe Islands, and Moldova in Group E of their qualification table.
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