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2026-04-17 12:29:00, Sport CNA

The Duke clarifies Silvinjo's future: It will be decided before June, I

The President of the Albanian Football Association, Armand Duka, has clarified the position of coach Silvinjo after the end of the World Cup qualifying campaign.

During a conversation with the media, Duka described the performance of recent years as the best in the history of the National Team, noting the fact that Albania came first in the European Championship group and second in the World Cup group.

Duka admitted that he had direct conversations with Silvinho after the friendly with Ukraine, where he asked the coach to reflect on whether he still has the energy and motivation needed to lead the group.

Although the coach's current contract is valid until July, the president stressed that a final decision on whether or not to continue with the Brazilian coach will be made before the June matches.

"We definitely expected more and in my opinion we deserved more. With what we gave on the field in Poland, the competition in general was good, in total, the qualifiers in the group, there were definitely matches in which they were not up to our expectations. During the qualifiers, there was a very good performance against the direct opponent, because it was our objective to be second in the group, while we suffered with Lithuania. With England, many teams in Europe have difficulty having a good performance, but in "Air Albania" it was good. The qualifiers for me were successful, to push it to connect it with the coach and the staff, they are the best in history, in the European they were first in the group, in the World Cup they were second, which has never happened before. We definitely wanted to go to the World Cup, we could go from that match, try our luck.

But starting from this kind of mini-analysis, I talked to the team coach immediately after we returned from the torturous friendly with Ukraine that we were all injured, us more than Ukraine, that they had not felt it as much as we did. And I told him the same things that in my opinion the journey of these years is positive. But, a coach feels it himself and should feel it, a professional should feel it himself if he can lead a team. This is a position that consumes you, players are not happy when they are not called, to maintain that balance, to have power and still energy, the one who is in charge feels it more. I asked him how he feels, if he is leading this team again or not. I have an obligation to be transparent and I am telling the conversations as we had with the coach. He asked me “What do you think?”. In my opinion, you still have energy, I told him. He will take time to think about it and give me an answer. It doesn't mean that if he says yes, we will offer him a new contract. But we will decide before the June games whether we will continue with the coach or with another one.

"Maybe the contract should have been until March at the end of the play-offs, but we had agreed in November and it could have been different. We couldn't make a contract until March because it would be demotivating for the team. We were sending a message that we are not going to the World Cup, so the coach's contract is until after the World Cup ends. The differences are very small and psychological preparation and belief in victory are among the most important things. The first thing is to convince yourself that we can achieve it and then take it to others," said Duka.