Sven-Goran Eriksson has died at the age of 76 following a long illness.
Eriksson became the first foreign manager of the England men’s football team in 2001 and also managed a string of high-profile European clubs during his career including Benfica, Roma, Fiorentina, Sampdoria and Lazio.
Sky Sports News senior reporter Rob Dorsett went to visit Eriksson in his home town of Sunne in Sweden in late 2022. Here, he looks back at an astonishing career.
Sven Goran Eriksson was England’s first non-English manager.
So famous in the UK, was Sven, that you only needed to mention his first name and everyone – whether a football fan or not – knew who you were talking about.
When he was appointed in 2000, the FA hailed him as one of the best coaches in world football. He was the unanimous choice of English football’s kingmakers.
He was a media dream – enigmatic, controversial, colourful, European. He was very different from his predecessors.
He appeared as regularly on the front pages of the tabloid newspapers as he did on the back. But his football CV showed him to be a serial winner, with 18 trophies across three countries.
Eriksson took charge of England’s ‘Golden Generation’ of players, but he couldn’t deliver a major international title, and he was eventually sacked after being famously tricked by the Fake Sheikh in 2006.
It was a typically chaotic and controversial conclusion, to his biggest job in football.
Until the end, the softly-spoken Swede remained one of the most popular and hugely respected figures in football.
“I think football is like a drug,” he told me, in 2022. “I am a lucky man. I never thought I should be a professional in football at this level.”
Sven: The player-turned-coach
Sven-Goran Eriksson was, in his own words, “a distinctly average defender, but someone who rarely made mistakes”. He made his debut for Swedish Division 4 side Torsby IF at the age of 16, as a right-back.
He retired as a player aged just 27, disillusioned with his own lack of progress, but still in love with the game. Intelligent, thoughtful – he studied economics, and became a PE teacher for a while.
But coaching was his calling, and would become his salvation.
He started out as assistant to his friend Tord Grip before succeeding him as manager at Degefors, when Grip was appointed the Sweden national team manager.
It was the start of a meteoric rise. He led the team to the play-offs in 1977 and 1978, winning the latter and promotion to Sweden’s Division 2.
That earned him a move to IFK Goteborg, where the 30-year-old Sven went on to achieve a domestic double, before they became the first Swedish team ever to win the UEFA Cup, in 1982.
That gave Eriksson a profile beyond his homeland, and some big European clubs sat up and took notice.
Conquering Europe
Benfica were the next to benefit from his tactical nous and gentle coaxing of the players. He took over in Lisbon in 1982, with immediate success – Sven’s side won consecutive league titles in his first two seasons.
But Italian football always held a special place in Eriksson’s heart. It was the league he had watched as a boy, and admired the most – football with flair, football mixed with art.
He fulfilled a lifetime dream becoming manager at Roma in 1984, but silverware in Rome was limited to just one Coppa Italia in his three-year spell.
He would go on to manage Fiorentina, Benfica again and then Sampdoria before almost moving to the Premier League in 1997 with Blackburn Rovers.
Eriksson verbally agreed a move to Ewood Park, but then he received an offer to manage Lazio, and changed his mind. Again, the Italian pull was just too great.
Major success followed. Lazio won the European Cup Winners Cup and then, in 2000, the Serie A title for only the second time in the club’s history.
The Swede was at the peak of his coaching powers, admired across Europe for his ability to get the very best out of whatever players he had at his disposal.
England come calling
England’s manager Sven-Goran Eriksson and Wayne Rooney during a training session at 2006 World Cup
When Kevin Keegan resigned as England manager following defeat against Germany in October 2000, the FA turned to Sven. But controversy dogged his reign from the very start.
In the three months between Keegan’s departure and Eriksson’s appointment, former international players, pundits, journalists and supporters weighed in with their opinion on what a “disgrace” it was for the FA to look overseas. There were protests outside FA headquarters in London.
Sven was typically phlegmatic, and charming, in his first England news conference: “The only thing we must hope is that we get good results. If we don’t get results, they will hang me. Even if I was an Englishman they would hang me.”
Those words would prove to be prophetic.
“It’s time for the talking to stop,” Eriksson pleaded. “I’m here finally. So far there’s been a lot of talk in Italy, England and Sweden. But now I am looking forward to starting.”
On the pitch, with 2002 World Cup qualification hanging in the balance, Eriksson’s England turned things around, famously beating Germany 5-1 in Munich before David Beckham’s dramatic late free-kick against Greece secured a spot in Japan and South Korea.
Beckham’s broken metatarsal dominated the build-up to the tournament but England made it to the quarter-finals before losing 2-1 to the eventual winners, Brazil.
England topped their group to qualify for Euro 2004 and inspired by the emerging Wayne Rooney, again made it to the last eight. This time Portugal and penalties would be their downfall.
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Rob Dorsett visits Sven-Goran Eriksson to discuss various topics including Gareth Southgate, the ‘Fake Sheikh’ scandal, the Notts County hoax and leading England to two World Cups
But – inevitably – the off-field controversies followed Eriksson too.
His long-term, on-off relationship with lawyer Nancy Dell’Olio made the couple prime targets for the paparazzi. His affairs with Ukrika Jonsson and then Faria Alam were like catnip for the English papers.
But for the FA, it was more serious. Alam was an FA Employee.
The pressure intensified when England lost to Northern Ireland in September 2005.
And then came the ‘Fake Sheik’ sting by the News of the World where Eriksson was secretly recorded saying he was prepared to leave England, and join Aston Villa after the 2006 World Cup.
He would go onto sue the newspaper and was also later an alleged victim of the phone hacking scandal in the Leveson inquiry into press ethics.
But days later, in the full glare of the media, the FA announced he would leave his role after the World Cup in Germany.
Rooney’s lack of fitness disrupted preparations. And England went out in the quarter-finals again against Portugal – courtesy of penalties, and a winking Ronaldo.
The Premier League – and Notts County!
Exactly a year later, Eriksson took over at Manchester City and led them to ninth in the Premier League, but an 8-1 defeat against Middlesbrough on the final day of the season proved to be his last in charge.
A short foray back into international management followed, with Mexico, before a shock return to England, as director of football at Notts County.
It was 2009.
It seemed bizarre – and it proved to be exactly that.
Backed by the Middle-Eastern Munto Finance consortium, Eriksson was given free rein to take the world’s oldest league club all the way to the Premier League.
In came stellar names like Sol Campbell and Kasper Schmeichel, ready to play in League Two. But the big investment that had been promised was a sham, and with debts of £7m, the club was on the verge of collapse within six months.
Eriksson – memorably – waved the multi-million pound pay-off he was due, to help the Magpies survive.
Sven’s final days – and poignant message
Eriksson cut an emotional figure as he was greeted by the Anfield crowd
After a stint with the Ivory Coast, he spent a year in charge of Leicester City before spells in China and the Philippines national team.
After over 1,200 matches as a manager, Eriksson decided to spend more time back in his hometown of Sunne in Sweden, where he continued to help out with local third-division side Karlstad, until ill health forced him to take a step back at the start of 2023.
Speaking in a documentary about his career, titled Sven, Eriksson recently reflected on his illness and life. “I had a good life,” he said. “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. 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. Bye.”