By Elliott West
“It’s some sort of a fight, but I’m not sitting in a corner crying. I live the life as I lived before, almost. And it’s okay. I’m still on my feet.”
Sven Goran Eriksson
Introduction
Life is a precious commodity and when it draws to a close, reflection sets in. You are on this earth for a purpose, lighting up those around you with your brilliance but when your maker calls, you must oblige. The news that the former England manager Sven Göran Eriksson has terminal pancreatic cancer with a prognosis of a year to live is devastating for players and fans alike but it is important to take the positivity out of negativity. Few people have had the opportunity to be gifted the opportunities that Sven has received in life. A former right-back who went on to manage clubs like Benfica, Roma, Sampdoria, Lazio Manchester City and Leicester City. He would also manage England, Mexico, Ivory Coast and the Philippines at an international level.
A Sprinkle of Brilliance
“I was looked upon as a distinctly average defender, but someone who rarely made mistakes”.
Sven Goran Eriksson
This softly-spoken and unassuming man came from Swedish working-class roots. Born in Sunne, Sweden in 1948 and raised in Torsby, his father Sven was a bus conductor and his mother Ulla worked in a textile factory. Nicknamed Svennis due to his younger brother Lars-Eriks not being able to pronounce his name, Eriksson went on to study economics and became a physical education teacher in Örebro. An avid lover of the beautiful game, Sven would make his debut for Torsby IF at the age of 16, going on to play for SK Sifhälla and then KB Karlskoga.
Influenced highly by Karlskoga’s player-manager, Tord Grip who favoured the English styles of play of Bob Houghton and Roy Hodgson, Eriksson had a shortlived playing career, retiring at the age of 27 in 1975. Giving up his dream of playing professional football must have been a blow but a necessity. A move to shower his talent elsewhere in the game at a managerial level.
Managerial Career
Sven would begin his manager role in football in 1977, taking up the position at Degerfors IF. A role that would last until 1978. His achievement was that he helped promote the club to Swedish Football Division 2. A lover of the 4–4–2 formation, Eriksson would go on to manage IFK Göteborg in 1979, Benfica in 1989, Roma in 1984 and again in 1989, Fiorentina in 1987, Sampdoria in 1992, Lazio in 1996 until 2001. What would come next would be the opportunity of a lifetime but one that didn’t play out how the Swede would have hoped it would go.
Accepting the Call
Taking over from Kevin Keegan who had famously resigned in the old Wembley toilets after a World Cup qualifier defeat to Germany, Eriksson was dubbed as a modern European manager. Yet his managerial style was cemented in the football coaching manual of the 1960s, written by Allen Wade, the FA’s technical director. Fans would say his 4-4-2 approach was a mistake, predictable and unbalanced with his team overrun in the midfield. An England manager who liked to use all his top players at once. Gerrard and Lampard taking it in turns to assume the holding role and was starstruck by David Beckham, playing him even if he was only half-fit. It didn’t work against the top International sides.
Yet others would say his defensive tactic was brilliant and was much better than the shambolic Kevin Keegan. Only a fluky goal versus Brazil and two penalty shootouts against Portugal stopped England from progressing to the semi-finals. Yet he lacked the technical literacy to bring offensive fluidity. England lacked cohesion in the midfield and an England manager brave enough to sort out the midfield. A manager who had a tough call to sort out the players of the generation who prioritised club over country. A foreign manager who struggled to overturn the country’s mindset. A team that would score 9/10 for their club but only 5/10 for their country.
The ice-cold Swede in the dugout tried but failed to lead the Golden Generation to success. They lost two World Cups and one European Championship. They did thrash Germany 5-1 in 2001 with Michael Owen scoring a hat-trick. An England career that lasted 67 matches with 40 wins, 17 draws, and 10 losses with a winning percentage of 59.7%. Not a great record but certainly better than some of his predecessors.
Scandal
“I thought I was prepared for England but I was not prepared for things outside football, my private life”.
Sven Goran Eriksson
The England brand and the FA had to deal with Sven’s skeletons in his closet. Going out with the beautiful Nancy Dell’Olio at the time, the press revealed his affair with Ulrika Jonsson. A woman whom he had met when Nancy was in the bathroom. An affair that damaged him and his girlfriend. This was especially because Nancy got into her head that nothing had happened between the two. This 19-year-gap affair. Ulrika was known for dating footballers. She had already had a stormy relationship with Stan Collymore and she first met Sven in 2002. The pair started as friends but they began to regularly for dinner. The news broke in the now-defunct News of the World newspaper and Ulrika subsequently admitted the affair. It was brief but she read the riot act and demanded that Eriksson leave Nancy. The couple survived the storm despite the revelation that Sven also had an affair with FA secretary Faria Alam. The couple eventually split in 2007.
A Liverpool Dream
“Absolutely beautiful.”
Sven Goran Eriksson
Sven has always had a dream to manage Liverpool football club. It was a dream that would take a terminal cancer diagnosis to achieve. However at the age of 76 and still in good spirits, the dream came true. Walking onto the Anfield pitch, he was met with a wave of applause to lead the Liverpool Legends into a 4-2 win against Ajax Legends. Flanked by some of the true legends of Liverpool in the dugout, Ian Rush, John Barnes and John Aldridge, this was a management team that had only one thing on their minds, winning. A team that included Steven Gerrard. A win that Eriksson that Sven summed up eloquently. “It’s a good finish, to finish with Liverpool, it can’t be much better than that.”