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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
John Brewin and Will Magee

Sven-Göran Eriksson: tributes pour in after former England manager dies – as it happened

SvenGöran Eriksson England Benfica Lazio

And that concludes this remembrance and collection of tributes to the life and times of Sven. Rest well, a singular football man.

We await David Beckham’s tribute to Eriksson, who etained him as captain throughout his England reign, but the two remained friendly. Earlier this year, Beckham visited his former manager at his lakeside residence in Sweden, who described the visit to Radio Sweden’s P4 Varmland.

He came with six litres of wine from dates that were important to me. He had wine from 1948 – the year I was born, very nice of him. He is genuine, he could have been a big diva, but he is quite the opposite. He ate herring and potatoes and elk meat. The previous day he had sent a chef who fixed the food, and then he came and was here for a day, we sat chatting, a lot about football.

Michael Owen scored a hat-trick on that night in Munich. That helped win him the Ballon D’Or for 2001, the last Englishman to do so.

When Eriksson’s diagnosis was announced, Channel 4 compiled a tribute from his former England players. Owen Hargreaves, a player who received patronage from Sven – and deservedly – gave a particularly poignant tribute. In the interview, Eriksson showed himself as he had always been, a shy, philosophical man, though one with a sense of fun, and devoted to his players. His goodbye has been touching, a reminder that football can look after its own.

Eriksson announcing he was terminally ill allowed him to see how beloved he was across the football world. Liverpool, the club he supported but never managed, offered him the chance to lead them in a charity match against Ajax in March.

Eriksson returned to the World Cup one more time, with a talented Ivory Coast team at South Africa 2010. But like so many of the African teams at that tournament, there wasn’t a great deal of success, and they were knocked out at the group stage.

The Gothenburg origin story

My colleague Marcus Christenson, Eriksson’s fellow Swede, has written this origin story of that early success with IFK Gothenburg.

Eriksson’s style of play was extremely structured. The goalkeeper played it to one of the full-backs, who had two options: play it short to the forward who came towards him or long to the forward who ran behind the opposition’s defence. The midfield was mainly there to win the ball if it had been lost. And it worked.

At the World Cup 2006, the England end came after another metatarsal problem – Rooney – and another quarter-final loss to Portugal, where an overheated Rooney lost his cool with Ricardo Carvalho and clubmate Cristiano Ronaldo too. Eriksson took the time to tell the English press to protect Rooney.

You, more than me, need Wayne Rooney in the next few years so, please, pay attention, don’t kill him, I beg you. Whether he did it intentionally or not, leave it. Take it easy with Rooney, for your own sake. You need him, so take care of him. You will need him in qualifying for Euro 2008 and you will need him to win it. He is the golden boy of English football. So, please, make it easier for him to come back than it was for [David] Beckham. I have no hard feelings with him. None at all and nor should you.

Under Eriksson, England became the serial quarter-final losers. Euro 2004, in Portugal, might have been the one to win, only for Wayne Rooney to break his foot – that injury again – in the match with the hosts.

Steve McClaren, alongside Eriksson in the England dugout and his eventual successor, has been speaking about his former boss and that night in Munich.

That was the moment when we all said, ‘Yeah, he’s the real deal, he can do this job’. That’s the key thing. Players, when a manager is standing in front of them want to look at a manager and think, ‘He can make us win’ and on that night we all looked and thought, ‘He’s that man, he can make us win’.

Probably the only time he lost it was with (assistant manager) Tord Grip when he brought the wrong bottle of red of an evening.

Inter manager Simone Inzaghi has paid tribute to his former manager at Lazio.

The passing of Sven-Goran Eriksson is a great pain for me. I was very young, just arrived in Rome and he helped me a lot, he was fundamental in my growth as a footballer and as a man. I admired his calm, his education, the great respect he had for everyone. For me he was a source of inspiration.

I am here also thanks to him and his teachings. Sven was a great man, an example of life for everyone. These last months faced with great strength and a unique desire to live have been a further demonstration of his greatness: he taught us to live while he was dying.

From 2002, the story that took Sven’s name from the back pages to the front.

He would remain a staple of the front, too, and be a target of the ‘reporting’ methods of the tabloid war taking place at the time.

Simon Hattenstone interview with Eriksson

Eriksson spoke to the Guardian only earlier this month.

Why can’t England win a tournament? “One of the reasons is the expectation the press put on the players.” The longer the England men’s team goes without winning a tournament, he says, the more of a millstone it becomes: “1966 is a long time ago. England is a football nation and you have the best league in the world. You definitely have the players. So I think it’s more mental than technical or tactical.”

There was so much optimism for the 2002 World Cup but then came an injury crisis – David Beckham’s metatarsal, Gary Neville doing the same, Steven Gerrard’s groin.

The high of beating Argentina was followed by the disappointment of losing to Brazil, and Ronaldinho’s fluke/brilliance in the quarter-finals.

There was another side to the quiet man, one for which he became almost as famous as for the football. Here was a man who made sure to enjoy his life, even amid all the pressures.

In English club football he was a popular, if short-tenured, manager of both Manchester City and Leicester.

Eriksson coached Benfica from 1982 t0 1984 and 1989 to 1992. Amid much domestic success – three league titles – he took the club to the finals of the Uefa Cup in 1993 and then the European Cup in 1990.

IFK Göteborg, is where Sven came to European prominence. Taking a Swedish team to a major Uefa competition as he did in 1982 would be unimaginable now. His assistant Gunder Bengtsson, repeated the feat in 1987.

The club’s tribute to Svennis, as he was known in Sweden.

Thanks for all the memories.

We have been informed that Sven-Göran Eriksson has passed away.
Our thoughts go out to Svenni’s immediate family and to all those who have been touched by him.

After a period of illness, Sven-Göran Eriksson has fallen asleep. He was 76 years old. IFK Göteborg shares the grief with the family, all our supporters and friends of Svennis.

We are so grateful for his deed, the one he did in IFK Gothenburg and for Swedish football. We are also happy that we were able to thank him this spring, both with a match in his honor and by naming one of our stands at Gamla Ullevi after him.

It was at IFK Göteborg that Sven-Göran Eriksson broke through as a coach. Here he became Swedish champion, cup champion and Uefa cup champion.

When Svennis came to IFK Gothenburg in 1979, he made a huge impression on Swedish football. Also abroad, he lined up successes with Benfica, Roma, Sampdoria and Lazio - to name a few.

We remember Svennis for that, but we also remember him for his warmth, curiosity, openness and joy.

Thanks for all the memories, Svennis. We never forget you.

Tributes from Italy

Lazio, Sampdoria and Roma, his clubs. And Milan, his great rivals.

Updated

Paul Hayward on Eriksson

The great Paul Hayward has written this consideration of the football life – and beyond of - Eriksson.

At his zenith, Eriksson was managing England while attracting interest from Chelsea, Manchester United, Barcelona and Inter. Until front-page splashes broke its trance, the Football Association of the time fell into a rearguard to keep him in the England tracksuit. Eriksson was lined up to become the next Manchester United manager until Sir Alex Ferguson reversed his plan to retire. Ferguson would ask United players returning to the training ground from England duty: “What does Eriksson do, what’s his secret, what has he got?”

Updated

Memories of Munich

The game Englishmen will recall Sven most fondly for is, of course, Germany 1-5 England in September 2001, a World Cup qualifier.

The German team England faced in Munich had themselves been through a state of panic after a poor Euro 2000. When national manager Erich Ribbeck was sacked, the coming force in German football was Leverkusen’s Christoph Daum, but a personal scandal meant the job stayed vacant and Rudi Völler was the replacement drafted in.

A sad, strange coincidence is that Daum himself died from cancer at the weekend just gone. Völler, the stand-in who stayed on, took Germany to the 2002 World Cup final. England, of course, lost to eventual winners Brazil in the quarter-finals but they would always have Munich, Michael Owen’s hat-trick and Emile Heskey celebrating on the wheels of steel.

Germany: Kahn, Worns (Asamoah 46), Böhme, Linke, Nowotny, Hamann, Rehmer, Ballack, Jancker, Deisler, Neuville (Kehl 78). Subs not used: Lehmann, Bierhoff, Kehl, Baumann, Ziege, Klose.

England: Seaman, G Neville, Ashley Cole, Gerrard (Hargreaves 77), Ferdinand, Campbell, Beckham, Scholes (Carragher 82), Heskey, Owen, Barmby (McManaman 65). Subs not used: Southgate, Martyn, Fowler, Andy Cole.

Referee: P Collina (Italy).

Updated

In 2000, Sven – one of those rare people in football and public life known by their first name – came to English football in a time of flux. Kevin Keegan had quit the England team in dramatic circumstances, and Peter Taylor had assumed temporary charge. England were homeless, with Wembley being rebuilt, and many might remember his first game in charge – a 3-0 friendly win over Spain at Villa Park – saw broadcaster Sky give the viewers the choice of a “SvenCam” to watch the new manager. Different times indeed.

That first England team: James, Phil Neville, Powell, Butt, Ferdinand, Campbell, Beckham, Scholes, Andy Cole, Owen, Barmby. Subs: Gary Neville, Martyn, Brown, Ehiogu, Phillips, Sheringham, Fowler, Heskey, Lampard, Carragher, Wright, Ball, McCann.

And in the opposing midfield: Pep Guardiola.

Spain: Casillas, Manuel Pablo, Romero, Guardiola, Abelardo, Mendieta, Raul, Enrique, Urzaiz Aranda, Helguera, Unai. Subs: Sergi, Canizares, Victor, J. Etxeberria, Javi Moreno, Baraja, Paco.

Updated

The English public last got to meet Sven when he achieved a lifetime’s ambition in being the manager of Liverpool in a charity match with Ajax in March.

The tributes are pouring in from English football but he was a major figure in Sweden, Italy and Portugal, too. When England turned to him in that winter of 2000, they turned to one of the world’s great managers, who had delivered success through the 1980s and 1990s. After England, he travelled far and wide, and there are a couple of jobs he might have had – he was signed up to be Blackburn boss in December 1996, but then reneged, and then in 2002 was all but signed up to manage Manchester United, only for Sir Alex Ferguson to renege on his retirement plans. A different manager, a players’ manager, and someone who enjoyed life, too.

The prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer, has passed on his condolences.

Deeply saddened to hear that Sven-Goran Eriksson has passed away. He will be remembered for his tremendous contribution to English football which brought joy to so many over the years. Our thoughts are with his family.

I’m handing over the blog to John Brewin now. He’ll helm the rest of our coverage.

Many on social media have been sharing this clip from Amazon Prime’s documentary Sven, in which Eriksson reflects on his illness, life and death. It’s a very moving insight into the man he was.

England have issued a statement on X, which reads: “We are deeply saddened that Sven-Göran Eriksson, who managed the #ThreeLions from 2001 to 2006, has passed away aged 76. Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this time. Rest in peace, Sven. You will be greatly missed.”

Our picture desk has put together a gallery of Eriksson’s career in football, from his playing days to his last jobs in management.

Eriksson's children celebrate 'good and positive person'

A statement has been issued by Eriksson’s children, which reads: “Our father Sven-Göran Eriksson fell asleep peacefully in his home at Björkefors outside Sunne this morning. He has for a long time fought bravely with his illness, but now it came to an end.

“Our thoughts go out to Sven-Göran’s father Sven; girlfriend Yaniseth and her son Alcides; to his brother Lasse and wife Jumnong, as well as to all good friends and acquaintances in Sweden and around the world.

“Dad told us at the beginning of this year about his serious illness and received an amazing response from friends and football fans around Europe. He was invited to several football teams in England, Italy, Portugal and Sweden. They shared their love for football and for dad. It was unforgettable for both him and us. He expressed his appreciation and joy and stated that such beautiful words are usually only uttered when someone has died.

“‘I get to hear it while I’m alive and I’m incredibly grateful for that. The heart beats twice and the tears come. I have had the best job in the world and I was happy every day for long periods. It’s been fantastic,’ he said.

“We have shared his gratitude and got to experience the wonderful meetings between him, football and all his friends. We thank everyone for these positive memories and your support during his illness.

“We hope that you will remember Svennis as the good and positive person he always was both in public and at home with us. Lina and Johan Eriksson.”

Updated

Manchester City, another of Eriksson’s former clubs, have added to the commemorations, tweeting: “We would like to express our sincere condolences to the family and friends of Sven-Göran Eriksson, who has passed away at the age of 76. Rest in peace, Sven.” Lazio, where Eriksson had an enormously successful spell between 1997 and 2001, tweeted an image of their former manager accompanied by the message: “Thank you for everything you’ve done for us, mister.”

'A true gentleman of the game': Prince William pays tribute to former England manager Sven-Göran Eriksson

Tom Bryant: In a personal tribute to the former England manager Sven-Göran Eriksson, the Prince of Wales called him a “true gentleman of the game”.

In a post on X signed W, William said: “Sad to hear about the passing of Sven-Göran Eriksson. I met him several times as England manager and was always struck by his charisma and passion for the game. My thoughts are with his family and friends. A true gentleman of the game. W”

Updated

After the sad news of Sven-Göran Eriksson’s death, his former clubs have been among the first to pay tribute.

Benfica, where he won three league titles across two spells and was a European Cup runner-up in 1990, tweeted: “It is with deep regret that Sport Lisboa e Benfica mourns the death of Sven-Göran Eriksson, at 76 years of age. Rest in peace, Mister.” Fiorentina, where he had a two-year stint between 1987 and 1989, tweeted: “Fiorentina joins the [football] family in mourning the passing of Sven Göran Eriksson.” Sampdoria, where he was manager between 1992 and 1997 and won the Coppa Italia, tweeted “Ciao Sven”, accompanied by a blue heart.

IFK Göteborg, where he won the Uefa Cup in 1982, issued a statement which read: “When Svennis came to IFK Göteborg in 1979, he made a huge impression on Swedish football. Also abroad, he lined up successes with Benfica, Roma, Sampdoria and Lazio – to name a few.

“We remember Svennis for that, but we also remember him for his warmth, curiosity, openness and joy. Thanks for all the memories, Svennis. We will never forget you.”

Updated

Sven-Göran Eriksson dies aged 76

Sven-Göran Eriksson, England’s first overseas manager and winner of multiple honours at club level, has died at the age of 76.

Eriksson revealed in January 2024 that he had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and that he likely had “at best” about a year to live. He had stood down from his final job, as sporting director at Karlstad in his native Sweden, the previous February because of what he described at the time as “health issues which are under investigation”.

Eriksson’s death was confirmed by Bo Gustavsson, the former Lazio coach’s agent in Sweden, via his UK PR agent, Dean Eldredge of Oporto Sports. Gustavsson said Eriksson had died on Monday morning at home surrounded by family.

Eriksson’s managerial career spanned more than four decades, beginning in Sweden with Degerfors IF before he took charge of IFK Göteborg. Eriksson was 30 at the time and barely known to the players of one of the country’s leading clubs, but he was unfazed and proved a huge success, leading Göteborg to the Swedish title and the Uefa Cup in 1982.

That led to Eriksson being appointed manager of Benfica and, again, he proved a success, winning two league titles and reaching another Uefa Cup final in 1983. This time he was on the wrong side of the result after a 2-1 aggregate defeat by Anderlecht.

Eriksson’s star was on the rise, however. He moved on to Roma and then Fiorentina before returning to Benfica in 1989, leading the Portuguese club to another league title and, in 1990, a European Cup final, where they lost to Milan. That led to a return to Italy with Sampdoria, whom he led to a Coppa Italia triumph in 1994, before a move to Lazio where Eriksson was backed in the transfer market by the club’s wealthy president Sergio Cragnotti and repaid that faith with a Serie A title in 2000. It was only the second time the Rome club had won Italy’s biggest prize.

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