Sven-Goran Eriksson has died. BBC: “Very sad news has come to us: Sven-Goran Eriksson has died at the age of 76. The former England manager passed away this morning at his home surrounded by his loved ones.” Eriksson, who coached Lazio, Sampdoria and Roma in Italy, announced months ago that he was suffering from an incurable tumour.
Eriksson was England’s first foreign coach, and thus his personality is inextricably linked to British football. He arrived in Italy in the mid-eighties in Roma, after his experience on the bench at Benfica in Portugal. Then the bench at Fiorentina and Sampdoria.
He won the Italian league title with Lazio in the 1999-2000 season. He then toured the world from the Arabian Peninsula to China and Thailand. He has coached several national teams: after his experience with England, he coached the Ivory Coast, Mexico and the Philippines.
In January, he revealed that he was suffering from terminal cancer, saying that at best, he had “one year to live”.
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Since that announcement, Eriksson has been a guest at some of the clubs he has coached across Europe. In Italy, Lazio and Sampdoria welcomed him to the stadium. In England, he fulfilled his dream: sitting on the Liverpool bench during a match organised between the club’s legends and Ajax.
“Don’t be sorry. Smile.” was one of the coach’s last messages during A documentary film dedicated to him “Thank you for everything: the coaches, the players, the fans. It was amazing,” Eriksson acknowledged. “Take care of yourself, take care of your life and live it. To the end, I lived a good life, yes.” “I think we all fear the day we die. But life is also about death. You have to learn to accept it, as it is. And hopefully, at the end, people will say, ‘Yes, he was a man.’ A good man.” Not everyone will say that, and I hope they remember me as a positive person.”
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