Tributes have poured in this afternoon following the death of former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson. The 76year old who had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer passed away at home surrounded by his family after a long illness.
Far and wide across the globe, tributes have poured in for the former England manager from clubs such as AC Milan who said “You gave a lot to this world, and you will be missed. Bye, Mr Eriksson”, FC Bayern “We stands united with the entire football family in mourning at the side of the family, relatives and friends of Sven-Goran Eriksson. Rest in peace!” Tottenham Hotspur “We are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson. The thoughts and condolences of everyone at the club are with Sven’s friends and family at this difficult time.” And Liverpool who posted on Facebook, saying “Rest in peace, Sven-Göran Eriksson. The thoughts of everyone at the club are with Sven’s family and friends at this extremely sad time”.
Prince William also took to X (formerly Twitter) said “Sad to hear about the passing of Sven-Goran 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”.
And of course David Beckham who took to Instagram to pay his tribute, saying “We laughed , we cried & we knew we were saying goodbye… Sven thank you for always being the person you have always been, passionate, caring, calm & a true gentleman… I will be forever grateful for you making me your captain but I will forever hold these last memories of this day with you and your family… Thank you Sven and in your last words to me ” It will be ok”
Sven became England men’s football team’s first foreign manager back in 2001, when he took on the so called Golden Generation” which included Frank Lampard, Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard and of course David Beckham who was handed the captains armband by the former England manager.
Born, 5th February 1948 in Sunne, Sweden went on to a professional football management career in 1977 after his time as a player. His managing career started off with Degerfors, taking them to play-offs in 1977 and 78, winning the latter with promotion to the Swedish Football Division 2.
IFK Goteborg would be his next stop in his management career on 1979 where they finished second in Swedens top tier of the Swedish Football League, the Allsvenskan for the first time in the clubs history. He would go on to manage some of the top clubs in Europe, including Roma, Benfica, Lazio & Sampdoria, before taking up his post as England’s first foreign manager, where he debuted on 28th February 2001 with a 3-0 win against Spain in a friendly at Villa Park.
It was the 5-1 win over Germany in Munich which cemented his support by the British press who weren’t supported at the beginning after his announcement as England manager. Before this day on 1st September 2001, Germany had only been beaten by England once at home. The 5-1 win by England was helped by a Michael Owen hat-trick with goals also scored by Steven Gerrard and Heskey.
Sven left the England manager role after the 2006 World Cup after 5years managing England where he managed two world cup qualifications, and EURO 2004. He went on to manage Mexico, the Ivory Coast, as well as English clubs Manchester City & Leicester City.
More recently Sven stepped down as sporting director at Swedish club Karlstad back in February 2023.
Amazon Prime this week released their documentary ‘Sven’ is availble to watch and a must watch even for those who aren’t football fans, the heartwarming documentary which we watched on its premier 23rd August, showed Sven looking back on his life and career.
The former England manager left the film crew in tears as he sat in front of the camera recording his final goodbye alone in a room without a cameraman, his message left the crew in tears as he said “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. 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.”
At the start of the year Eriksson said he had “at best a year” to live as he was being treated for terminal cancer. The heartbreaking scene for Sven was filmed in January after he realised he did not have long left to live.
Director Claudia Corbisiero said: “That final message was a very emotional thing to do with someone. We left the room and made sure that it was something that he did by himself. We had talked about it, ‘was there anything you want to say to your family or to anyone in particular, that which you would like us to record in the most sensitive way possible?’.
“And from those conversations that were had in a sensitive way, I think that it became an option. It was a completely remote set up. So we set up the camera, the sound guy was listening from outside the room. We were all obviously completely in tears.
“He was always open, but I think it just took time to get him to be really open about his illness and the way he felt about it. He’s very like a soldier. He continues on and he lets things roll off and then he keeps going.
“And Sven also really wanted to make sure that this wasn’t only a sad story. And that was something that he was really keen on, is ‘I don’t want this to be a boo hoo. I’m dying’ thing. He wanted people to also lean into the fun of his life.”
Skilled director Claudia, who is one of the key factors behind the way the extraordinary new film looks and feels, began work on the project in Spring 2023. It had already begun preliminary filming before Eriksson’s diagnosis and then after a short break he wanted to resume and it took on a different look and feel.
Claudia told the Mirror the doc also coincided with the Swede getting very close to his son Johan and daughter Lina again after years on the road. Tender new footage captures them spending quality time together.
Entertainment Swindon 
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