Swedish football coach Sven-Göran Eriksson said he has incurable cancer. During his career, he managed to coach several club and national teams. His civil life became public, especially in the early 2000s, when he coached the England national team.
Swedish of coaching greatness Sven-Göran “Svennis” Eriksson life has been colorful and included 17 coaching jobs in several different countries. He has not escaped scandals either, and often they have been connected to his female relationships.
Eriksson turned 76 on February 5. In January, he announced that he was suffering from pancreatic cancer. He said he had at most one year left to live.
It's time to go through his life – and start hill jumping. Eriksson did ski jumping at least when he was less than 10 years old and also competed in the sport, but in the summer he played soccer.
Eriksson's first football club was home team Torsby, where he played even after his girlfriend at the time moved by Nina Persson with to Karlstad. At the same time, Eriksson worked in an insurance fund.
The job didn't really hit and Eriksson went to high school at the age of 21. His studies went well, and after high school he continued to Örebro Gymnastics and College and also worked as a gymnastics teacher after his studies and played for Karlskoga's team in the second division.
in Karlskoga Eriksson realized that he would never become a professional soccer player – at least not as a player. In a way, coincidence intervened at the same time: he received a call from his former teammate From Tord Gripwho had taken over as head coach of Degerfors IF.
“Right then, late in the fall, I received a phone call that would perhaps become the most significant in my football life,” Eriksson states in his biography Svennis – the games of my life (Otava 2014).
Eriksson hung up his cleats and became Degerfors' assistant coach. He only had time to be an assistant coach for a season when Grip got an invitation to be an assistant coach of the Swedish national team, and Eriksson became the head coach of Degerfors at the age of 29.
The rest is history, you could say, but in any case, Eriksson needed a Norwegian sports psychologist Willi Railon Help. With the help of Railo, Eriksson impressed upon the players positive thinking and the importance of relaxation.
“I don't know if I was successful thanks to Will's ideas, but I would use them for the rest of my career,” Eriksson stated in his biography.
Eriksson raised At the end of Degerfors' 1978 season from the third division to the second division and got a call again. This time he was wanted in bigger circles, i.e. IFK Göteborg's head coach.
Eriksson led IFK Göteborg to an achievement that nowadays is very difficult to imagine a Nordic team reaching.
In the spring of 1982, Gothenburg celebrated the victory of the UEFA Cup, the predecessor of the Europa League. Hamburger Sport-Verein (HSV) fell in the two-part final.
“
“Then I immediately decided that I would never smoke cigarettes again.”
After this, people outside Sweden also began to wonder: what kind of kid is this? Eriksson quickly found himself in Portugal, as SL Benfica hired him as their head coach. The championship came at the end of the 1984 season, but Eriksson also made one health decision in Portugal.
“One day, when I came to my office in the stadium, where people were sitting around drinking as usual, there was so much smoke that you could hardly see your hand in front of you. There was no air conditioning. That's when I immediately decided that I would never smoke a cigarette again. And that's what happened.”
From Benfica, the road led to Italy, first to AS Roma, then to Fiorentina and back again to Portugal and Benfica. This was followed by the second longest coaching spell in Eriksson's career: five years at Sampdoria in Italy.
Sampdoria was followed by SS Lazio, where Eriksson finally won the scudetto, the Italian championship, in 2000. Eriksson coached Lazio for 3.5 years and considers it the highlight of his career.
“It was the best episode of my career. Seven trophies in less than four years,” Eriksson stated For The Guardian in 2022.
“
“It was a blow below the belt.”
Sven-Göran Eriksson was the first foreign coach in the English national team. In the summer of 2006, the World Cup was played in Germany.
English the home of the national team's head coach is a windy and visible place. Eriksson took the position at the beginning of 2001 and surprisingly it became the longest coaching stint of his career, five and a half years.
The success didn't get much bigger: in the World Cup or European Championships, the road always got up in the quarterfinals.
In England, Eriksson also came across a new thing: the hacking of his private life, to which he also gave reasons.
Eriksson was married to a Swede by Ann-Christine Petterson with between 1977 and 1994, and they have two children John and Lina, but he already had loose relationships in Italy. They didn't just go public there – except once.
“It was a blow under the belt,” Eriksson stated.
At that time, Eriksson was already divorced and dating Nancy Dell'Olion with. The relationship had started while Dell'Olio was still married to another man.
Nancy Dell'Olio photographed in 2006.
Dell'Olion Eriksson arrived in England with – according to his own words, this should not necessarily have happened.
“From my side, love had really ended,” Eriksson states in his biography.
In England, especially the relationship rose to the top to Ulrika Jonssonto the Swedish-born TV presenter.
Since discontinued News of the World magazine intercepted Jonsson's text messages in which he told his friend about his relationship with Eriksson. After the relationship with Eriksson had ended, Jonsson wrote columns for the same newspaper, in which he regularly discussed Eriksson's private life.
“
“I didn't regret anything.”
In addition News of the World tricked Eriksson with a fake sheik. Eriksson went to Dubai, where a fake sheik, who was actually the editor of that newspaper, claimed that he was considering buying Aston Villa and asked Eriksson to coach the team. The story also claimed that Eriksson had promised David Beckham's transition to Villa.
Eventually, Eriksson took the case to court and won, but this was only after Eriksson had been kicked out of the England national team.
Eriksson's his attitude towards his female adventures is shocking to say the least. This is what he has stated, among other things:
“I didn't regret anything.”
“On the other hand, I didn't know if he was married or otherwise busy. He said he was single. It didn't matter to me.”
“The relationship kept getting more serious. Nancy didn't suspect anything.”
In addition, in his biography, Eriksson repeats the phrase about his dating partners: “No one was good for my mother.”
In 2008, in Mexico, where he was the head coach of the Mexican national team for just under a year, Eriksson met a Panamanian nightclub dancer Yaniseth del Carmen Bravo Mendoza. They have been together ever since.
Yaniseth del Carmen Bravo Mendoza (left) and Sven-Göran Eriksson participated in the Swedish sports gala in January.
Eriksson had moved to Mexico from England, where he was the head coach of Manchester City for a season after the national team.
Mexico was followed by stints in the Ivory Coast, Leicester, three clubs in China, and the last coaching stint was the Philippine national team from October 2018 to January 2019.
Eriksson's last job was the sports director at Karlstad FK. He gave it up about a year ago due to health issues.
Although Eriksson has been a coach in many places, almost more interesting is which coaching contracts he has missed or which have fallen through for some other reason.
According to Eriksson, he has been asked to join Tottenham, Barcelona, Manchester United, Chelsea, Dynamo Kyiv and the North Korean national team, among others.
Of these, Manchester United is particularly interesting. Sir Alex Ferguson had to quit as United manager after the 2001–02 season. Eriksson was wanted as a replacement, but Ferguson changed his mind and signed a new contract.
However, the matter progressed so far that, according to Eriksson, the contract was already signed.
“With a pin [Pini Zahavi, Erikssonin agentti] however, even today it is the signed contract that I am the new coach of Manchester United.”
When the Russian Roman Abramovich became the owner of Chelsea, he tried twice to get Eriksson as coach. Even before buying Chelsea, he needed advice on which club should be bought, Chelsea or Tottenham.
“If he wants to win, he has to buy Chelsea. Then he only has to change half of the team.”
Sources: Svennis – The games of my life (Otava 2014) and The Guardian.
Who?
Sven-Göran Eriksson
Svennis Eriksson piloted the Ivory Coast in the 2010 World Championships
in South Africa. The team stayed in the first group.
-
Head coaching jobs: Degerfors, IFK Göteborg, Benfica, AS Roma, Fiorentina, again Benfica, Sampdoria, Lazio, England national team, Manchester City, Mexico national team, Ivory Coast, Leicester City, Guangzhou, Shanghai SIPG, Shenzhen and Philippine national team.
-
In addition, among other things, as football director at Notts County (2009–2010) and technical director at Tero Sasana of the Thai league (2012) and Al-Nasr of the United Arab Emirates (2013).
-
The most significant achievements as a coach: UEFA Cup victory (IFK Göteborg 1982), Portuguese League victory three times (Benfica 1983, 1984 and 1991), European Cup Winners' Cup victory (Lazio 1999) and Italian League (Serie A) victory (Lazio 2000).
-
Chosen as the coach of the year in the Italian league in the season 1999–2000. BBC Coach of the Year Award in 2001.
#Football #life #terminally #ill #Svennis #Eriksson #lacked #twists #turns #secret #relationships #tarnished #reputation
