Sven-Göran Eriksson is dead.
Torbjörn Nilsson describes it as “terrible”.
– It almost feels like a family member who has passed away, saying “God”.
It was during Monday that the announcement came. Sven-Göran Eriksson, Sweden’s greatest football coach of all time, has passed away. “Svennis” had his big breakthrough with IFK Göteborg, which he led to victory in the Uefa Cup in 1982.
“Like a family member”
Sven-Göran Eriksson made several of the players in Blåvitt world stars, and after the years in IFK Göteborg, Glenn Hysén and Glenn Strömberg, among others, did great things in Europe. Torbjörn Nilsson was for a few years an absolutely world-class goalscorer, and he was then nicknamed “God” in Gothenburg.
Torbjörn Nilsson has always been clear about how much Svennis actually meant to his football career, and he describes his former coach’s death as “terrible”.
– It is so terrible. He has meant so much to me and to many players in IFK Gothenburg. It almost feels like a family member who has passed away, he tells Radiosporten.
Player support
Sven-Göran Eriksson coached major teams such as Benfica, Roma and Lazio during his coaching career. He is perhaps most associated with the job of England captain, where he took the nation to two consecutive World Cup quarter-finals. He started his stay there by defeating Germany 5-1, but he didn’t quite get the same start in IFK Gothenburg.
Torbjörn Nilsson describes how the supporters were initially skeptical, but that the players understood from the first moment that he was something very special.
– We started and he got a lot of criticism because we only played long balls. They shouted in the stands: “Send that damned heathen home”. But we players wouldn’t have allowed that, because we were attached to him from day one, says Nilsson.
Sven-Göran Eriksson was 76 years old.
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