THE former England and Manchester City manager Sven-Goran Eriksson has died, it has been announced.
The Swede – England’s first foreign manager – announced last year that he had been given a terminal diagnosis for pancreatic cancer.
His agent confirmed the news on Monday morning.
Eriksson, who led England at the 2002 and 2006 World Cups as well as the 2004 European Championship, recent told The Mirror that he hoped to be remembered as “a good man”.
Speaking at the end of upcoming Amazon Prime Video documentary ‘Sven’ and quoted in the Mirror, 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.”
Eriksson became the first foreign England manager when he was appointed in 2001 and subsequently led the team to the quarter-finals of two World Cups and one European Championship.
He was in charge of England for five years before leaving after the 2006 World Cup.
In March, a long-held dream of managing Liverpool was fulfilled when Eriksson took charge of a ‘Legends’ charity match at a packed Anfield.
In January, the former Manchester City and Leicester manager told Swedish Radio P1: “Everyone can see that I have a disease that’s not good, and everyone supposes that it’s cancer, and it is. But I have to fight it as long as possible.
“It’s pancreatic – you can’t operate on it. It can be slowed.
“I know that in the best case it’s about a year, in the worst case even less. Or in the best case I suppose even longer. I don’t think the doctors I have can be totally sure, they can’t put a day on it.
“It’s better not to think about it. You have to trick your brain. I could go around thinking about that all the time and sit at home and be miserable and think I’m unlucky and so on.
“It’s easy to end up in that position. But no, see the positive sides of things and don’t bury yourself in setbacks, because this is the biggest setback of them all of course.”
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