Sven-Goran Eriksson, the former coach, has died at the age of 76
Former coach Sven-Goran Eriksson has died at the age of 76, his family announced.
“After a long illness, Sven Gordan-Eriksson passed away this morning at home, surrounded by his family. His closest mourners are his daughter Lina, his son Johan with his wife Amana and his granddaughter Sky, his father Sven, his girlfriend Yanisette with his son Alcides, his brother Lars-Erik with his wife Jumnong. The family asks for respect for their wish to grieve in private and not to be contacted,” reads the statement released by the family.
The former England coach revealed in January that he had terminal pancreatic cancer, adding that he had a maximum of a year to live.
“Everyone sees that I have a disease that is not good for me, and everyone assumes that it is cancer, and it is. But I have to fight it as long as possible. I know that in the best case I have about a year, in the worst case even less. Or in the best case I assume even more. I don’t think that the doctors I have can be completely sure, they can’t put a day. It’s better not to think about it. You have to trick your brain. I could go around thinking about it all the time and sit at home and be unhappy and think I’m unlucky and so on,” Eriksson told Swedish radio P1.
Regarding his illness, the Swedish coach added: “I was completely healthy, then I collapsed, I fainted and ended up in hospital. After a medical consultation I found out I had had a stroke and that I already had a tumor. I don’t know how long, maybe a month, maybe a year. It turned out I had cancer but the day before I had run five kilometers. It came out of nowhere. And that makes you shocked. I don’t feel any great pain. But I was diagnosed with a disease that you can slow down but you can’t operate on. So it is what it is.”
Just a few days ago, the trailer for the documentary aired on Amazon Prime that tells the life and career of Sven-Goran Eriksson was released, in which the former coach gave his farewell message.
“I think we’re all scared of the day we die, but life is also about dying. I hope that in the end people will say, yeah, he was a good guy, but not everyone will say that. I hope you’ll remember me as a positive guy who tried to do everything he could. Don’t be sorry, smile. Thank you for everything, coaches, players, the crowd, it’s been amazing. Take care of yourself and take care of your life. And live it to the end. Bye.”
In recent months, Sven-Goran Eriksson had greeted his “fans” on a tour of the stadiums where he had coached and also fulfilled a dream: to sit on the Liverpool bench for a day.
Sven-Goran Eriksson dies: his career
Also known by the nickname Svennis, after a brief career as a footballer, spent in the lower Swedish leagues, he became a coach.
During his long career he coached Göteborg, with whom he won a UEFA Cup, a Swedish championship and two Swedish cups.
Arriving at Benfica, he immediately won the Primeira Liga and the Portuguese Cup. In 1984 he arrived in Italy, where he became coach of Roma. With the Giallorossi he came close to winning the Scudetto, which he lost in the penultimate round of the championship after a dramatic 3-2 defeat to Lecce, who had already been relegated. In Rome, he still won an Italian Cup, then moved to Fiorentina and then returned, after two years on the Viola bench, to Benfica.
He won the Portuguese championship for the third time and won the Portuguese Super Cup, also reaching the final of the Champions Cup, then lost to Milan.
He returns to Italy, this time on the bench of Sampdoria with whom he wins an Italian Cup. After five years he moves to Lazio, starting a winning cycle.
With the Biancocelesti, in fact, Sven-Goran Eriksson won a Scudetto, the second in the history of Lazio, a Cup Winners’ Cup, a European Super Cup, two Italian Cups and two Italian Super Cups. He left Lazio to become the technical commissioner of England, where he remained coach for five years.
In the last years of his career he coached in China and then became manager of numerous teams, from Notts County to Al-Nasr to IF Karlstad Fotboll, a team playing in the Swedish third division.
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