Sven-Göran Eriksson would end up as England’s national team captain.
Then he did something that Wayne Rooney will never forget.
– That shows Sven’s class, says Rooney.
It was on Monday that the news of Sven-Göran Eriksson’s death came. Sweden’s greatest football coach of all time told us in January this year that he had suffered from incurable and fatal cancer, and that he only had a year left to live at best. During the year, Svennis has received tribute after tribute in the football world, and after his death, the nice words have continued to pour in.
Nice gesture
Sven-Göran Eriksson had his big breakthrough as a coach for IFK Gothenburg, which he led to a sensational win in the Uefa Cup. It didn’t take long before the rest of the football world caught the eye of the Swede, and after the success in Sweden, coaching assignments followed in Portugal and Italy, and the success only got bigger and bigger. Sven-Göran Eriksson then got perhaps the toughest coaching job in the whole world as England’s national team captain, but after the 2006 World Cup he had to leave.
Svennis took England to the quarter-finals of the World Cup twice in a row, but in his last tournament with the nation, in Germany 2006, it was Wayne Rooney who ended up starring. The quarter-final against Portugal was an hour old when the hot-tempered Rooney was shown a red card, and after England went on penalties, the verdict on the striker was harsh in the media. In the documentary “Svennis”, which was released last week, Sven-Göran Eriksson says that he remembers how hard David Beckham was attacked after his red card during the 1998 World Cup, and he did not want Rooney, who was then only 21 years old, to go through same thing.
“Very grateful”
The day after the trip to Portugal, Sven-Göran Eriksson met the assembled British media corps. Already before the World Cup, everyone knew that it was the Swede’s last tournament with England, and the press conference the day after the quarter-final was therefore Svenni’s very last. Then he chose to only talk about Wayne Rooney.
– You, more than me, need Wayne Rooney in the coming years. So please, listen now, don’t kill him. I am asking you for it, said Eriksson.
– Whether he did the stamping on purpose or not, just forget it. Take it easy on him, you need him, so take care of him. He is ‘the golden boy’ in English football. Make it easier for him to come back than it was for Beckham.
For Wayne Rooney, it was proof of what kind of person Sven-Göran Eriksson was, and in the documentary it is a moved Rooney who talks about that day.
– It shows Sven’s class. His last press conference, his last duty as England manager, and you could see how much he cared about me… I was very grateful, says Rooney.
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