Swedish football manager Sven-Goran Eriksson, who coached England from 2001 to 2006, died Monday at the age of 76 after a battle with pancreatic cancer, his agent said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe passed away peacefully this morning with his family around him at his home,\u201d Eriksson\u2019s agent Bo Gustavsson told AFP.<\/span><\/p>\n The Swede, who managed a number of high-profile teams and took England to World Cup quarter-finals in 2002 and 2006, announced in February 2023 that he was stepping back from public life due to \u201chealth issues\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n In January, he told public broadcaster Sveriges Radio that he was suffering from pancreatic cancer and that his doctor\u2019s assessment was that he had \u201cat best maybe a year (to live), at worst a little less\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe have known about this but it happened very quickly. We were not prepared for it to happen today,\u201d Gustavsson told AFP.<\/span><\/p>\n Born on February 5, 1948, in Sunne in western Sweden, Eriksson, who goes by \u201cSvennis\u201d to Swedes, found success as a football manager after retiring from a modest career as a defender.<\/span><\/p>\n In 1977, he became the manager of the Swedish club Degerfors IF. After leading the small club to success in lower divisions, he attracted the attention of bigger clubs.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2013 \u2018Thank you for everything\u2019 \u2013<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n He went on to manage Sweden\u2019s IFK Goteborg before finding success internationally, managing Benfica in Portugal, as well as several Italian teams, including Roma and Lazio.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThank you for everything you have done for us, coach,\u201d his former club Lazio said in a post to social media.<\/span><\/p>\n His most high-profile position was as the first foreigner to manage England\u2019s national squad.<\/span><\/p>\n During his spell, he took England to the World Cup quarter-finals in 2002, where they were knocked out by Brazil.<\/span><\/p>\n They also made the last eight four years later where Portugal came out on top in a penalty shoot-out in a game where Wayne Rooney was sent off after a clash with his then Manchester United team-mate Cristiano Ronaldo.<\/span><\/p>\n Eriksson led England to the last eight of the 2004 Euros where Portugal also knocked them out in another penalty shoot-out.<\/span><\/p>\n He left the England job in 2006 after five years in charge.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2013 \u2018Special memories\u2019 \u2013<\/span><\/p>\n His time in the hot seat had seen a memorable 5-1 win over Germany in a World Cup qualifier but also controversy over his personal life, including an affair with television presenter Ulrika Jonsson.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThis is a very sad day. He gave all England fans such special memories,\u201d Mark Bullingham, CEO of England\u2019s Football Association, said in a statement.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cSven will be rightly recognised and forever remembered for his significant work with the England team, and for his wider contribution to the game,\u201d Bullingham continued.<\/span><\/p>\n England\u2019s Prince William, who said he met Eriksson several times while president of the English Football Association, said he \u201cwas always struck by his charisma and passion for the game\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cMy thoughts are with his family and friends. A true gentleman of the game,\u201d the prince said in a post to X.<\/span><\/p>\n Eriksson went on to manage Mexico, Ivory Coast and the Philippines, but never his native Sweden\u2019s national squad.<\/span><\/p>\n In March, Eriksson fulfilled what he said had been a lifelong dream of managing English football club Liverpool.<\/span><\/p>\n Alongside former Liverpool favourites Ian Rush, John Barnes and John Aldridge in the home dug-out, he managed Liverpool Legends in a charity match against Ajax Legends, overseeing a 4-2 win for his team.<\/span><\/p>\n Eriksson said afterwards he had shed tears before kick-off, when he received a standing ovation from the crowd as he walked out onto the pitch, with fans singing the Liverpool anthem of \u2018You\u2019ll Never Walk Alone\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThat will be a huge memory in life,\u201d Eriksson said. \u201cAbsolutely beautiful.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n AFP<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Swedish football manager Sven-Goran Eriksson, who coached England from 2001 to 2006, died Monday at the age of 76 after a battle with pancreatic cancer, his agent said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19344,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19343"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19343"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19345,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19343\/revisions\/19345"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}