Former England manager S ven-Goran Eriksson has died at the age of 76. A statement on his official website confirmed he had died on Monday morning, surrounded by his family.
The Swede, who had been battling cancer, was the first foreign manager of the English national side, taking charge of 67 matches from 2001 to 2006.
The manager who oversaw England’s ‘golden generation’ in the 00s, also managed the likes of Roma, Lazio, Manchester City and Leicester City during his illustrious career, winning 18 trophies.
Eriksson was never far away from the headlines during his time in England where, apart from football, his private life was a seemingly endless source of fascination for newspapers. That being said it never appeared to dampen his spirits and he always maintained a positive outlook on life, even in final few months.
In a documentary about his life, now available on Amazon Prime, Eriksson gave an emotional farewell to his fans saying: "‘I hope you will remember me as a positive guy trying to do everything he could do.
"Don’t be sorry, smile. Thank you for everything, coaches, players, the crowds, it’s been fantastic. Take care of yourself and take care of your life. And live it. I had a good life. I think we are all scared of the day when we die, but life is about death as well."
‘You have to learn to accept it for what it is. Hopefully at the end people will say, ‘yeah, he was a good man’. But everyone will not say that.’
Another story comes from former Manchester City midfielder Dietmar Hamann’s book, titled The Didi Man, which details a telling interaction with Eriksson while he was manager of City in 2008.
Describing a moment from a post-season tour to Thailand, Hamann wrote: “One morning I was on a sun lounger by the pool when I saw Sven walking towards me carrying a silver tray with a bottle of champagne and two glasses on it.
“It was still only ten o’clock in the morning…Sven came over and put the champagne on the table next to me, then placed one glass in front of me and the other by his lounger.”
He added: “I looked up and said, ‘Boss, what are we celebrating?’… He turned to me and smiled that gentle smile of his and took on the air of a Buddhist philosopher as he said, ‘Life, Kaiser.’ Then after pausing for dramatic effect, ‘We are celebrating…life.’”
The story sums up Eriksson’s attitude to life and football, and it’s been recirculating since the sad news was announced.
Earlier this year Eriksson told Swedish radio station P1: “Everyone understands that I have an illness that is not good. Everyone guesses it’s cancer and it is. But I have to fight as long as I can. [I have] maybe at best a year, at worst a little less, or at best maybe even longer. You can’t be absolutely sure. It is better not to think about it.”
The 75-year-old collapsed while running a 5km last year, which prompted doctors to investigate. They found he had suffered a stroke, and subsequently discovered the disease. “They don’t know how long I had cancer, maybe a month or a year,” he said.
He said he is trying to maintain a positive mindset. “You can trick your brain. See the positive in things, don’t wallow in adversity, because this is the biggest adversity of course, but make something good out of it.”
Eriksson added: “I was fully healthy and then I collapsed and fainted and ended up at the hospital. And it turned out that I had cancer. The day before I had been out running five kilometres.
“It just came from nothing. And that makes you shocked. I’m not in any major pain. But I’ve been diagnosed with a disease that you can slow down but you cannot operate. So it is what it is.”
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