Swedish coach Sven-Goran Eriksson, a three-time Portuguese champion with Benfica and the first foreigner to hold the job of English football manager, a position that befitted his reputation as a “gentleman”, died on Monday at the age of 76 from pancreatic cancer.
After a rather memorable playing career, much of it at Torsby in the Swedish lower division, Eriksson rose to prominence as a manager, winning titles in four countries (Sweden, Portugal, two spells at Benfica, Italy and England) in addition to three European trophies.
Born in Sunne on February 5, 1948, the young Eriksson soon moved to nearby Torsby (about 400 kilometers from Stockholm), where he began an equally modest career as a full-back in 1964 with the modest local club Pravyj, which ended in 1973 at KB Karlskoga.
His coaching career began in 1976, also “lowly”, as an assistant at Degerfors, and the following year he took over the “reins” of the team, leading them to the fourth division of Swedish football in 1978 and attracting the interest of clubs with greater ambitions.
Gothenburg, currently the second club with the most Swedish championship titles after Malmö, took a chance on an unknown coach who immediately reciprocated by winning the Swedish Cup – the club’s first – in 1979 and the double (league and cup) in 1982.
But it was winning the UEFA Cup, now the Europa League, last year, with a triumph in the final over Hamburg, 1-0 in Gothenburg and 3-0 in Germany, that opened the door to international football for the coach. . Swedish: Benfica won the race.
Along with Eriksson at the start of the 1982/83 season came Glenn Strömberg, one of the best Swedish players of all time, who had also achieved fame through the successes of IFK Gothenburg and who, like his compatriot, left Lisbon two seasons later to lead the team to Italy.
His time at Benfica, in a team that included many of the best Portuguese footballers of the time such as Bento, Humberto Coelho, Carlos Manuel, Diamantino, João Alves, Choo, Chalana and Nenê, resulted in him winning two league titles in 1982/83 and 1983/84, as well as the Portuguese Cup in his first season.
The manager also made his mark in Europe, featuring in the UEFA Cup final, in his debut season, against Anderlecht (a 1-0 defeat in Brussels and a 1-1 draw in Lisbon), as well as in the quarter-finals of the 1983/84 European Cup final, where he would face Liverpool, on the English side’s path to the continental title.
Italy was a great power in European football at the time and Eriksson could not resist the invitation of Roma, who had just lost to Liverpool in the final of their predecessor’s Champions League, and Strömberg returned to follow his compatriot, but this time to Atalanta.
Three seasons at Roma and the next two at Fiorentina strengthened Eriksson’s prestige, but were limited to winning the Italian Cup in the 1985/86 season, and in the 1989/90 season the Swede decided to return to where he was happy: Benfica.
Along with compatriots Jonas Thörn and Mats Magnusson, and later Stefan Schwartz, they soon won the Portuguese Super Cup and reached the European Cup final, where they beat Milan 1-0, before winning a third league title in 1990/91.
Benfica finished second in the 1991–92 season by a wide margin to Porto, and Eriksson returned to Italy, spending six seasons at Sampdoria, leading to the Coppa Italia in 1993–94, and three and a half seasons at Lazio, where he became champion (1999–2000) and twice lifted the Coppa Italia (1997–98 and 1999–2000) and the Supercoppa Italiana (1998 and 2000).
The transalpine capital’s golden era also saw victory in the 1998/99 Cup Winners’ Cup and the 1999 European Super Cup, and culminated in the historic appointment of an England national team coach, the first time the appointment had been made by a non-Brit.
Eriksson lasted six years in one of football’s most senior positions, from 2001 to 2006, despite England being knocked out in the quarter-finals of the 2002 and 2006 World Cups and the 2004 European Championship, with Portugal winning the latter two matches, both on penalties.
An inglorious spell at Manchester City, far from the strength evident on Monday, in the 2007/08 season was perhaps the swan song of the Swedish coach, who also managed Mexico, the Ivory Coast and the French national team. The Philippines, where he played his last game, lost 3-1 to Kyrgyzstan on January 16, 2019.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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