Former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson has revealed he has been diagnosed with terminal cancer and has around a year at most to live.
Eriksson, who served as England’s first foreign manager from 2001 to 2006, stood down from his most recent role as sporting director at Swedish club Karlstad 11 months ago due to health issues.
The 75-year-old told Swedish radio station P1 he had been given the shock news after fainting on a 5k run, and had previously been in a good state of health.
He led England to one of their most famous results, a 5-1 win over Germany in Munich in September 2001, and took the Three Lions to three consecutive quarter-final berths at major tournaments.
Eriksson 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.
“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.
“It just came from nothing. And that makes you shocked.
“I’m not in any major pain. But I’ve been diagnosed with a disease that you can slow down but you cannot operate. So it is what it is.”
Eriksson’s England spell was arguably his most high-profile position, but was one of a number of big roles he held during a managerial career spanning more than 40 years.
He first rose to international prominence with Benfica, whom he led to back-to-back league titles in the early 1980s after joining from IFK Gothenberg.
From there he managed Roma, Fiorentina and Sampdoria as well as enjoying a second spell in Lisbon before leading Lazio to a domestic double in 2000, in what remains their most-recent Serie A title.
That success caught the eye of the Football Association, who persuaded him to join England in January 2001.
Initial scepticism over the appointment of a foreign manager for the first time in the country’s history was eased by the thrashing of Germany in Munich eight months later, though England still needed David Beckham’s free-kick heroics to automatically qualify for the 2002 World Cup.
At major tournaments, Eriksson’s England record was defined by penalty shoot-outs, twice losing to Portugal at Euro 2004 and World Cup 2006, both in the quarter-finals – the latter his final game in the role.
From there he managed Manchester City for a season before further international roles with Mexico and Ivory Coast, an ill-fated 49-game spell at Leicester City, while his most recent managerial role was in charge of the Philippines in 2019.