David Beckham shares heartbreaking tribute to Sven-Goran Eriksson
David Beckham has shared a heart-breaking tribute to Sven-Goran Eriksson on Instagram – featuring what appears to be his final meeting with the ex-England manager.
Becks’ social media post features a silent clip of him and the late Swede, 76, walking, talking and laughing at what appears to be Eriksson’s home in Sunne on an unspecified date.
He issued the tribute after the football legend’s family announced his death earlier today following a battle with pancreatic cancer.
Beckham wrote: ‘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’.’
David Beckham and Sven-Goran Eriksson seen together in a post Beckham made on Instagram earlier this evening
Eriksson and Beckham pictured in 2006 leaving for the World Cup in Germany
Svennis, as he is known at home in Sweden, revealed in January he had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and had been given at most a year to live.
However, he had been praised for his inspiring and optimistic outlook on his diagnosis, in which he implored others to live life to the full.
Earlier this year, he told MailOnline Beckham had been among those he had spoken to after making the news of his cancer public in a Swedish radio interview.
He said: ‘It’s been really crazy. The telephone phone hasn’t stopped ringing since the radio interview was broadcast, I’m surprised by all this support, I didn’t expect it all. I never imagined this sort of reaction.
‘To be honest the broadcast shouldn’t have gone out until Sunday but it did and that’s OK there is nothing I can do but I have had so many calls, all the time, it’s nice.
‘I’ve spoken with David Beckham, I won’t say what he said but it was very good of him to call. We speak every now and then, every few months and I also heard from (ex Man City boss) Roberto Mancini.
‘I’ve heard from people who were at the Football Association when I was there, Wayne Rooney’s agent sent me a message and then there were surprise calls from people I hadn’t heard from in years but it’s like that.’
In a Prime Video documentary issued days before he died, Sven had opened up about the highs and lows of his life – including how he was coping with the news he had been diagnosed with cancer.
He said: ‘It was a shock. It’s one of those which will not go away.
‘But you can slow them down hopefully. I have no pain but I know it’s there.
‘One day it will take you. Before that day, live instead of sitting down thinking about what and when it will happen.’
This is a breaking story – more to follow.
