Former England supervisor Sven-Goran Eriksson useless at 76 as soccer world mourns

Former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson has died aged 76.

A statement confirmed his passing on Monday (26 August), it read: “Sven-Goran Eriksson has passed away. After a long illness SGE died during the morning at home surrounded by his family.

“The closest mourners are daughter Lina; son Johan with wife Amana and granddaughter Sky; father Sven; girlfriend Yanisette with son Alcides; brother Lars-Erik with wife Jumnong.

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“The family asks for respect for their wish to mourn in private and not be contacted. Condolences and greetings can be left on the website.”

His passing comes just days after his documentary was released on Amazon Prime. In a tear-jerking documentary aptly named ‘Sven’, the football legend bid farewell to the world.

“I had a good life, yes,” Eriksson admitted. “I think we all are scared of the day when it’s finished, when we die. But the life is about death as well. You have to learn to accept it, of 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,” he added. “Thank you for everything – coaches, players, the crowd. It’s been fantastic. Take care of yourself, and take care of your life, and live it. Bye.”

Eriksson is one of the most decorated managers in history having won 18 trophies over the course of a 42-year career that took him all over Europe, as well as to Africa, Asia and Central America.

English fans will best remember him through his five-year stint in charge of the national side, as well as spells with Manchester City and Leicester.

He became England’s first foreign manager after taking over from Kevin Keegan in 2001 and helped turn the team’s fortunes around by securing automatic qualification for 2002 World Cup, a few weeks after masterminding England’s iconic 5-1 win over Germany in Munich.

He presided over the emergence of the team’s fabled ‘Golden Generation’, and although he won 40 of his 67 matches in charge, England were knocked out at the quarter-final stage of each of the three major tournaments they took part in under the Swede.

Eriksson first started turning heads after winning the Swedish league title and the UEFA Cup with Gothenburg back in 1982. He was then appointed manager of Benfica and led the club to back-to-back Primeira Liga titles.

He moved on to Italy in 1984 and enjoyed notable spells with Roma, Sampdoria, Fiorentina and Lazio – winning six major honours with the latter including the club’s second-ever Serie A title in 2000 – an achievement that helped him land the England job a year later.

After five years with the Three Lions he was appointed Manchester City boss, but stayed for just one season before heading back to international football, first with Mexico and then with Ivory Coast.

He returned to England in 2009 after being appointed director of football at Notts County, but he resigned a few months later after it emerged the club’s new owners had been dishonest about their finances.

In 2010 he was appointed Leicester manager, but lasted just a year in the job after failing to achieve promotion to the Premier League.

Eriksson spent the remainder of 2010s managing in the far-east, first in China with Super League sides Guangzhou R&F, Shanghai SIPG and Shenzhen FC, and later in charge of the Philippines national side. He left the job, his last as a manager, in 2019 after just 10 games in charge.

His final footballing role came in Sweden, where he was sporting director at Karlstad, just a short drive from the town of Degerfors where Eriksson’s managerial journey began all those years ago.