Genoa – «I have a serious illness. I have a year left to live, at worst less, at best a little more. It's impossible to say exactly, so it's better not to think about it.” The words of Sven Goran Eriksson they freeze the world of football.
The 75-year-old Swedish coach, who played for Sampdoria from 1992 to 1997, revealed on Sverige P1 radio that he has an incurable cancer, a pancreatic tumor, like Gianluca Vialli. And so after the close disappearances of the striker and Sinisa Mihajlovic, between the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023, the Sampdorian environment is shaken by another sad news.
Born in 1948, Eriksson left his role as sporting director at Karlstad last February, announcing that he was ill. But only now does the gravity of the situation emerge. «I was fine, then one day while running 5 kilometers I collapsed. The tests revealed that I had had a small stroke and this tumor, which was inoperable. I will resist for as long as I can.”
Sampdoria encouraged him via social media: “We are with you Sven”. And his former clubs did the same, starting with Roma, Fiorentina and Lazio.
Marco Lanna, Sampdoria president, was coached by Svengo in 1992/93: «Eriksson was the coach who taught me to play zone and that year I went to the national team thanks to him. With Boskov we had always played man-to-man, with great results. But little by little football was changing, everyone would then play zonally: Eriksson was important for me. Sometimes doctors make mistakes, I can only hope that the diagnosis is wrong, I wish them the best of luck.”
From England, too David Platt expresses his closeness to Eriksson: «I heard this news – he explains to Il Secolo XIX – and I was upset, very upset but at the same time I saw the coach's great values emerging once again: he is a winner and he is also in the way he faced the disease, in his own way, with his elegance, his courage, his positive thinking. I have great memories of the two years with him at Sampdoria, all of this makes me sad.” And many expressed solidarity yesterday, from former colleagues like Sacchi to his former players, such as Veron, Rooney and many others.
After the first victories with Ifk Goteborg and Benfica, Eriksson arrived in Italy in 1984, to Rome. In Serie A he also coached Fiorentina and Lazio, with whom he won his only championship and then became England's first foreign coach. But the team he managed for the longest time was Sampdoria with whom he won the Italian Cup in 1994.
«The 5 years with Sampdoria were the happiest – he told Secolo XIX for his 70th birthday – Mantovani was my best president, the club was a family. My strongest Sampdoria? The 1993/94 season, many champions, Mancini, Gullit, Platt, Lombardo. And I don't forget Seedorf, Karembeu, Veron in the years after.”
Stars exalted by the Rector of Torsby, like Mihajlovic, who he reinvented as a central defender. Now Eriksson faces the toughest game: «You try to trick your brain. Otherwise it's easy to succumb, become negative and stay stuck at home. Better to see the positive aspects and not give up. I'm not in hospital, I lead a normal life and every now and then I go for a visit. At Christmas and New Year, my family was here. When you get a message like that, you appreciate every day and you're happy when you wake up in the morning and feel good, and that's what I'm doing.”
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