He left for Celta Vigo of La Liga, before joining Barcelona in 2004, with whom he won the UEFA Champions League in 2006 and 2009 among other honours.

Upon moving into management, he had brief stints at French club Lyon and Brazilian side Corinthians, before being named coach of the Albanian national team in 2023, subsequently qualifying them for UEFA Euro 2024.

[8] During his time at Arsenal, Sylvinho was registered under a Portuguese passport, allowing him to be classed as a European Union citizen and exempt from work permit requirements.

Britain's Immigration Services investigated the validity of this document before Sylvinho moved to Celta Vigo, where he was classified as a Brazilian citizen.

Sylvinho said after his transfer to Celta that he had no knowledge that he was registered at Arsenal as a Portuguese citizen, and said that it was solely the decision of the club's executives.

[13] He became a popular figure with the club's fans, helping the team to qualify for the Champions League for the first time in their history during the 2003–04 season.

He scored his first goal for Manchester City in a 4–2 win against Scunthorpe in the FA Cup on 24 January 2010, with a spectacular long range strike.

[20] On 8 June 2010, it was announced that Sylvinho's contract had expired and that he would be leaving the club, along with Benjani Mwaruwari, Jack Redshaw, Karl Moore and Martin Petrov.

[21] After receiving his first international call-up in 1997 under Mario Zagallo for a match against Russia,[14] Sylvinho formed part of Brazil's squad for the CONCACAF Gold Cup of 1998 wherein as they eventually finished in third place, he thus won a bronze medal with the team.

[35] He won no more games in the next seven league fixtures, and was sacked on 7 October 2019 after a 1–0 loss at rivals Saint-Étienne in the Rhone derby.

[42] Sylvinho moved into a hotel in the Albanian capital Tirana, leaving his family in Porto, Portugal; he communicated with his team mostly in Italian.

[43] Sylvinho's debut on 27 March 2023 was a 1–0 loss away to Poland in a qualifier,[44] but he subsequently guided the team to the finals with a 1–1 draw away to Moldova on 17 November.