Sven-Göran Eriksson, a coach who collected a number of titles over several decades, has passed away. But who will be remembered more for other things. An obituary
Sven-Göran Eriksson was in no danger of letting his remaining time, this publicly announced last year of his life, pass by depressed and withdrawn. In the past few months, marked by cancer, he even appeared in public, fulfilled his heart’s desire to stand on the Liverpool FC touchline and simply enjoyed himself as much as he could.
When opportunities arose, Eriksson, who was at best an average player, a right-back below the top Swedish league, made the most of them. Until a serious knee injury in his mid-20s, which only accelerated his move into coaching. He started in 1977 at Degerfors IF, still in the lower league. But two years later, it was IFK Göteborg, which was struggling financially, that gave the chance to an almost unknown young coach who was successful with his methods.
Eriksson’s methods were heavily influenced by English soccer, which made his soccer only partially popular in Sweden. At times, the average number of spectators even dropped because “Svennis” played pragmatically rather than attractively, running-intensively with space coverage and pressing, compact in a 4-4-2, straightforward and results-oriented
Eriksson’s first major triumph against HSV
He was creative and warm-hearted off the pitch with Eriksson, where he was perhaps not necessarily a man-catcher, but a man-understander and connector. That pacified the players, and they pacified the fans. Because the interplay of Eriksson’s methods brought success wherever he went. And he was on the road a lot.
As early as 1982, at the age of 34, Eriksson led Gothenburg to UEFA Cup victory against Hamburger SV under Ernst Happel with a pragmatic counter-attacking tactic, who would go on to win the National Champions Cup just one year later. Eriksson reached this final after championships and another UEFA Cup final with Benfica, but was narrowly defeated by Arrigo Sacchi’s AC Milan in 1990.
Eriksson almost led AS Roma, where he coached the player who impressed him most, the strong Brazilian Falcao, to the 1986 Scudetto. He went on to win the Italian Cup a total of four times, more than any other coach. He also won it with Sampdoria Genoa and Lazio Roma, Roma’s arch-rivals, who had sacked him not long after missing out on the championship.
In the sky-blue part of the eternal city, “Svennis” reached for the stars, reached the UEFA Cup final again, won the last edition of the European Cup Winners’ Cup, lifted the trophy twice and also won the championship in dramatic style in 2000, Lazio’s first since 1974 and last to date. The fact that he wasn’t met with sheer hatred from Roma was once again down to his style
He also makes England better – but it’s not enough to win the title
Eriksson united people instead of dividing them, matured over the years to become a citizen of the world and, especially in his successful years at Lazio, influenced well-known coaches of the future. Roberto Mancini, Simone Inzaghi and Diego Simeone played in his team at the time, on whose touchline the cosmopolitan was the first foreigner to be named Italy’s Coach of the Year. A few months later, he became the first foreigner to coach the England national team.
A sober Swede who pragmatically always worked with what was available to him, who had won so much silverware over the years, should have led the Three Lions’ much-quoted “golden generation” to a title in the 2000s. The improver also made this team better, but failed three times in the quarter-finals. At the 2002 World Cup against the eventual world champions Brazil, at the 2004 European Championship and the 2006 World Cup against Portugal on penalties.
Eriksson then traveled across the continents, learning several languages. He coached Côte d’Ivoire at the 2010 World Cup and his last stop was the Philippines until 2019. The golden age of his sporting career may have failed to materialize, depending on your perspective. But that hardly affected his fulfillment in life away from the pitch.
Hamann’s anecdote from the hotel pool
Dietmar Hamann, Eriksson’s player at Manchester City, once described in his biography a morning by the hotel pool when his coach sauntered in with two glasses of champagne and simply toasted life with Hamann. Eriksson was pragmatic, sometimes meticulous, but he was not an obsessive. He was more of a bon vivant.
When personalities in soccer have won titles, but are not primarily measured by them, it usually says a lot of good things about someone. The great willingness of Jürgen Klopp and Liverpool FC, where Eriksson never played, to fulfill his last wish is just one of many examples of the popularity of a man many people are mourning these days. For a significance that will long outlast Sven-Göran Eriksson’s life
