Paolo Tramezzani, the former Inter and Atalanta player, is happy to combine his role as Albania coach Gianni De Biasi’s assistant with his passion for youth coaching.

Albania’s 1-0 win away to Portugal in a Euro 2016 qualifier last month sent shockwaves through European football.

As a key member of Gianni De Biasi’s coaching team, Paolo Tramezzani contri-buted to Albania’s famous victory by helping to blood a host of young, talented players into the senior squad.

Tramezzani is a football man through and through.

Although he was not, by any stretch of the imagination, a star player, Tramezzani was what you would call a reliable professional who carved out a long and interesting career, turning out for established clubs, including Inter, Piacenza and Atalanta.

Now 44, Tramezzani was in Malta recently as part of the coaching team of Talent Eleven (T11), a foreign-based company specialising in football-related affairs such as youth development and transfers.

T11 organised a training camp for local youths at the Luxol Stadium.

History shows that, for a number of reasons, Maltese youngsters find it hard to make the grade abroad but Tramezzani believes that there is no dearth of talent in our country.

“I work with Gianni De Biasi for the Albanian national team,” Tramezzani said.

“Last March, we played a friendly match against Malta in Tirana (Albania won 2-0). I analysed the Maltese team and the qualities of their players.

“It soon became clear to me that the development of Malta as a footballing nation has been very good.

“Of course, with a population of just over 400,000, Malta can’t be compared to Italy, Spain, France and Germany, but during the friendly, I saw a well-organised squad with good individual capabilities.

“Albania is also a relatively small country with a population of 2,800,000. Young players have the opportunity to go abroad but there was something missing. The answer was simple... we had to try and improve the level of the coaches.

“It is important that up-and-coming players have a sound background. This is fundamental for their development.

“Every young player has the potential to improve, regardless of their level of talent. But the coaches have a vital role to play ... they must be at the centre of this project.”

Tramezzani had words of praise for the St Andrew’s youngsters who took part in the training camp.

“I’ve noticed a lot of promising qualities in these young players,” he said.

“They know how to conduct themselves on the pitch and have shown discipline and respect to the coaches.”

At the end of the training camp, the T11 coaches were to select three players who will be invited to spend three days training at the youth academy of Chievo.

“It’s not a trial but nonetheless a great opportunity for them to match up against their peers at Chievo,” Tramezzani said.

“We don’t want to illude the youngsters by telling them that they are going for a trial.”

Tramezzani insisted that his passion for youth coaching is driven by a desire to ensure a better future for young players.

“We hope to exude a positive signal,” Tramezzani said.

“We want to create a better future for these youths.

“I joined the Inter youth sector at the age of nine. I’ve seen many talented players who, for some reason or another, failed to fulfil their potential.

“One of the key objectives is to develop players who can make a living out of football.

“The second is to nurture these youngsters and help them break into the first squad.

“During my youth coaching course in Coverciano, we were given statistics that showed that, in Italy, only one in 30,000 persons played football.

“But, the bottom line, is that we must offer an excellent service to the good, promising players but also to those who are less talented and therefore have little chance of making it at senior level.

“It’s like a school mentality.”

On a personal level, Tramezzani is happy to combine his job as De Biasi’s no.2 with youth coaching.

“That is not my immediate objective,” Tramezzani replied when asked if he had any plans to become a head coach of a senior team.

“In 2003, I joined Atalanta and during my time there, I was involved in youth coaching.

“Inter also have an excellent youth set-up but the culture there is different as they can spend significant amounts of money to sign a promising youngster whereas Atalanta develop their own players.

“I like to work with youths.”

Looking back on his playing career, Tramezzani is just grateful to have had the opportunity to do what he likes most.

“My driving force was to make sure that those things I liked to do, I did them well,” he said.

“I got into the world of football at a very young age and I’m lucky to still be involved.

“I cherish memories of my youth, when I was at the college and my time with Inter.

“I was only nine when I left my family to move to Milan. It was not easy but it helped me a lot.”

Tramezzani is not one who likes to dwell on the past but being part of the Inter squad that won the UEFA Cup in season 1993/94 was one of the highlights of his career.

“I also had the opportunity to move to Tottenham Hotspur,” Tramezzani said.

“I wasn’t a champion but I succeeded through sacrifice and hard work.

“Passion and determination are two very important values that I try to instil in youths.”

On his experience in Albania, Tramezzani said: “It has been a nice experience in Albania. I have a very open relationship with De Biasi.

“Winning against Portugal was great but I hope it doesn’t raise unrealistic expectations.

“Albania must approach every game with the knowledge that we’re the underdogs.

“We must keep our feet on the ground.”

As for his future, Tramezzani prefers to focus on the present.

“I like to live the moment. I prefer to concentrate on what I’m doing. If new opportunities come along in the future, we will see,” he said.

“I received offers from clubs but I prefer to do things gradually... I don’t want to rush.”

Talent Eleven

Coaching clinics have become common in our country as local clubs expand their network of foreign contacts but the T11 organisers were quick to point out that theirs was not a one-off, run-of-the-mill venture.

“This is the first in a series of training camps we intend to organise in collaboration with Luxol Sports Club,” Denis Guerra, the Group CEO of T11, told Times of Malta.

“It’s a season-long project as our aim is not only to help these young players improve, we will be monitoring their development and progress on a regular basis.

“Our idea is to improve the formation of young players to create a kind of package which can be exported overseas. To do this, we need to instil a certain type of mentality and work ethic in young players.

“We are here to analyse their standard and try to improve on that.”

T11 run similar camps in Albania, Italy, Australia, Switzerland and Romania but Malta “is the strategic centre for what we want to achieve,” Andrea Albertoni, the company’s marketing guru, said.

Training camps represent only a part of T11’s work as the company have a network of contacts, including coaches and agents.

“Our people represent established players who are with top clubs,” Albertoni said.

“We invest in players, enabling them to move to other clubs.”

Jason Falzon, of Luxol Sports Club, has high hopes that this collaboration will enable more promising Maltese players to go overseas.

“T11 will make a thorough assessment of a player’s abilities,” Falzon said.

“They have a team of professional coaches, as demonstrated by Tramezzani’s presence, and their vision makes sense for us as promising youngsters will be sent to clubs where the level is, more or less, compatible with the qualities of the players.”