Sven-Göran Eriksson is dead.
In the documentary “Svennis” his last wish was revealed.
– I always thought it was a good place to sleep at, the coaching icon shared.
Sven-Göran Eriksson is Sweden’s greatest football coach of all time. The coaching career took off in earnest at IFK Göteborg, which he led during the unforgettable years in the 1980s, when, among other things, there was victory in the Uefa Cup.
Incredible coaching career
Sven-Göran Eriksson then had a long coaching career in Europe where he coached major teams such as Benfica, Roma, Fiorentina and Lazio. Most remembered, however, is Svennis for his years as the national team captain for the English national team, something that has been described as the toughest job you can have in sport. But Svennis did it with gusto, and took England to the quarter-finals in the 2002 and 2006 World Cups, as well as in the 2004 European Championship.
But in January earlier this year, Sven-Göran Eriksson told us that he had suffered from pancreatic cancer. The trainer icon then told that he had been told by the doctors that at best he only had a year left to live, and at worst even less than that. Last week the documentary “Svennis” premiered on Amazon Prime Video, but the protagonist himself was too ill to go to the premiere in England. On Monday, his family announced that Sven-Göran Eriksson, after rapidly worsening his illness, had passed away. He lived to be 76 years old.
Last wish
In the documentary, Svennis talks about how much his manor in Värmland, by Lake Fryken, meant to him. It was mostly there that he spent his time after he received the illness notice, and it is there that, according to a last wish in the documentary, he wants to be buried.
– It is a beautiful place. It makes one calm. It calms me down. The mountain there below the mountain, my father grew up there. If you look straight ahead, Torsby is where I grew up. In the other direction is Sunne, where I was born. I always thought it was a good place to sleep at. The ashes can be thrown into the water here. It feels like home, says Svennis in the documentary, according to Aftonbladet.
In the documentary, Sven-Göran Eriksson also talks about his feelings about the disease, and how he wanted to be remembered.
– I think we are all afraid of the day when it is over, when you die. Life is about death too. You have to learn to accept it for what it is. Hopefully in the end people will say: Yes, he was a good man. But not everyone will say that. I hope you remember me as a coach who tried his best, he didn’t win every game, but he won a lot and lost sometimes. Don’t be sad, says Sven-Göran Eriksson.
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