Elena Sadiku had a phone thrust in front of her by one of her assistant coaches as she stepped into the hallway.
"Elena, Elena, you're nominated for Coach of the Year," Sadiku recalled her saying.
"And then I just looked and I saw the Ballon d'Or logo and I was like, 'Ballon d'Or?' And she hadn't seen that, so she was like 'Ballon d'Or? Oh my God.' And then she got more hysterical and I was just shocked. Then I was like, 'Wait, Ballon d'Or?'"
The disbelief is understandable when you consider that, at 32, Sadiku is the youngest-ever manager (man or woman) to be included on the award shortlist.
But breaking age barriers isn't a new thing for Sadiku. Two years ago, she overtook Julian Nagelsmann as the youngest coach to take charge of a Champions League match.
Her Ballon d'Or nomination is on the back of her success at Swedish side BK Häcken, whom she led to the inaugural UEFA Women's Europa Cup last season. It was the club's first European trophy since its formation in 1970.
"I haven't celebrated [being nominated], but obviously I should take my staff out for dinner or something to celebrate. And maybe the players too, but that's a big cost for dinner, but maybe I should just do it," Sadiku told ESPN.
It's a feat that warrants celebration but that also shines a light on one of women's football's big issues. She is the only woman on the shortlist of Best Women's Coach, with Jonatan Giráldez (OL Lyonnes), Andrée Jeglertz (Manchester City), Nils Nielsen (ex-Japan coach) and Pere Romeu (Barcelona) the other contenders.
At the 2023 World Cup, just 12 of the 32 coaches were woman. A study by UK Coaching found a 6% drop in woman coaches between 2022 and 2024, with 78% of the participants saying greater visibility of woman coaches would be beneficial to their progression. Sadiku herself notes that former Chelsea and current U.S. women's national team coach Emma Hayes and ex-Switzerland coach Béatrice von Siebenthal were the only "inspirations" she had at the start of her career.
Earlier this year, FIFA created a new ruling that mandated that all women's teams in their competitions must have a woman head coach or assistant coach. In terms of further institutional change, Sadiku would like to see greater acceptance of maternity leave for coaches.
"I think that it needs to be accepted that ... for example, if I become a mom, I can have maternity leave for one, two months at least until I can start working again," she said.
"Because I think that is something that probably scares me as well. I would love to be a mom, but right now my focus is obviously on my career. I saw an example in Gotham FC when the head coach [Juan Carlos Amorós] became a dad and went on paternity leave. And I think that only shows that no matter if you're a man or a woman, you should be able to go for [parental] leave and the club should support you in that."
It's worth noting that in 2024, FIFA extended its mandate of 14 weeks maternity cover for players to include coaches as well. While Sadiku does feel she has had to sacrifice becoming a mother at this stage, she also notes that, at 32, she still has time to start a family.
Being so close in age to her players serves as a "big advantage" as she is able to understand them instinctively. The Swede sees her ability to build a strong team culture and identity as one of her biggest strengths as a manager, and feels it's a reason why she wins silverware so quickly after joining a club. Sadiku led Celtic to their first-ever Scottish league title within four months of taking over and similarly led Häcken to European success in less than five months.
Sadiku recalls being especially emotional after the Europa Cup win, as she had been dealing with the death of a family member and sickness of another throughout the season.
"I think I got so emotional [after the final] because during that time as well, I had hard personal accidents happening around me and I think I had to forget about that and lock myself into work because we know that we had so many important games," she said.
It's not the first time football has carried her through adversity.
The early part of Sadiku's childhood was marked by turbulence. Her parents escaped Kosovo in the early 1990s due to the wars in the former Yugoslavia and moved to Germany, where she was born. They moved back towards the end of the decade, but due to the start of the Kosovo War were forced to emigrate to Sweden. It was there that Sadiku began playing football in the back garden with her father and brother.
"I experienced different difficulties when I was younger, when I played football with my dad and my brother, it was the first time where I could feel free and safe and I just had so much fun," she said.
"And I think that love started there, but I think it was the safety ... no problems existed when I was playing football. I just enjoyed the here and now and playing and doing what I love. And obviously, when I entered a team for the first time, it was the first time I felt like I was maybe important or I felt involved. It was this feeling of being a part of something that made me feel l belong."
Her mother worked as a nurse and her father as an engineer. Building a life in a new country from scratch meant they left for work early in the morning, leaving a young Sadiku to look after her even younger brothers. This had a profound impact and was when she first realised how much she likes caring for people and making them feel seen.
By the age of 13, she knew she could be a professional footballer. Did she realise then that she was good enough to make it?
"Good enough? No, I was thinking I'm going to be. That is the thing ... When I decide on something, I make it achievable. I know it sounds crazy, but when I put my mind into something, I'm going to make sure that I achieve it. It's the competitive side in me," she said.
This drive carried Sadiku rapidly up the ladder, but at the age of 19 she suffered her first ACL tear. And, that's where her injury hell began.
"I've had 13 surgeries on my left knee as a player. Three ACLs and I had a leg reconstruction. You name it ... LCL, MCL, everything," she said.
She developed an infection after her third surgery that led to her undergoing seven more in the space of two weeks. The infection caused a fever that began to soar after the seventh surgery, and amputation felt like the only solution.
"I remember during that night, I accepted that they're going to just amputate my leg. And I was looking [on my phone]during that night ... 'OK, what can I do with one leg? How can I play football or what can I do?' I was already thinking about what I can do next to not just give up, do you know what I mean?" she said.
"I was accepting it [amputation] as long as I could live. It was crazy."
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Ultimately, she didn't have her leg amputated. But, her playing career was over at the age of 24.
"I got such an identity crisis because you can understand that when I was eight, I fell in love with football and it became where I felt safe and where I found my biggest passion. So I just wanted to be the best I can be, I wanted to play for the national team, I wanted to be professional and I wanted to move abroad and whatever," she said.
"I just created this dream inside of my head. And then when that dream was taken away, I was like, 'Who am I now?'
"And that was obviously a big hit, but thankfully I found my new passion in coaching just four months after."
Hammarby, the club she played for at the time, offered her the chance to open an academy for the women's team. She accepted and hasn't looked back since.
"I felt like I had so much more in terms of how I could affect so much more as a coach because when I was 23, I didn't know how good I could have been and that really killed me. But then when I was coaching, I was like, 'Oh my God, I can help my players so much.'"
It was a similar feeling to the one she had while caring for her brothers when they were in preschool.
Sadiku's coaching career has taken her across the globe, from Beijing to Denmark to Scotland. She even had a brief spell co-managing Rosengard's B-team along with now-Arsenal boss Renee Slegers.
Is the Women's Super League a possible destination?
Sadiku is ready to take the next step in her career and does have ambitions of coaching the best players in the world in competitive environments. But ultimately, it depends on finding a project that aligns with her values.
For now, she's happy where she is. At Häcken and in the present.
"I think since I've experienced so many setbacks, I almost lost my life, I think it's hard for me to look ahead," she said.