Sven-Goran Eriksson always looked every inch the ice-cool Swede in the dug-out but it’s fair to say his coaching career was anything but dull.
He was the coach who tried – and failed – to guide England’s much-vaunted ‘Golden Generation’ to the success and silverware their incredible talent apparently deserved.
They failed agonisingly at two World Cups and one European Championship finals despite some unforgettable results along the way.
As Manchester City manager, he masterminded their first double over rivals United in over 40 years in what was a wild final ride before the Abu Dhabi billions rolled in.
Eriksson also bizarrely turned up at League Two club Notts County, part of what turned out to be one of English football’s biggest frauds.
Sven Goran Eriksson has told Swedish radio he has cancer and may only have a year to live
The football manager was England boss between 2001 and 2006. Sven pictured with David Beckham after dumped out of the 2006 World Cup by Portugal in the quarter final
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The rollercoaster career within the game played out against a backdrop of love affairs and tabloid scandal as Eriksson had romances with Italian lawyer Nancy Dell-Olio, Swedish model Ulrika Jonsson and former Football Association secretary Faria Alam while England coach.
On these shores, Eriksson – who has revealed at 75 he is suffering from terminal cancer and may only have months to live – is best remembered for his five years as the first foreign coach of England.
The Swede, who’d achieved considerable domestic and European success at Italian club Lazio, inherited a Three Lions side at a low ebb.
Kevin Keegan had resigned in the toilets at the old Wembley Stadium after England lost the final game to be played there, a World Cup qualifier against old rivals Germany.
That 1-0 loss came months after Keegan’s team had bombed out of Euro 2000 after the group stage.
There was plenty of backlash at Eriksson’s appointment. When be arrived at FA headquarters for his first press conference, the Swede was greeted by a man dressed as John Bull holding a sign that read: ‘You’ve insulted the English, FA hang your heads in shame.’
But the chance to lead maturing players like Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard, alongside the likes of David Beckham and Michael Owen, was too tempting. No doubt the £3million salary helped seal the deal.
Eriksson set to work and silenced a good few dissenting voices when England thrashed Germany 5-1 in September 2001, with Owen scoring a magnificent hat-trick.
The Swede, who was the first overseas manager of the England team, settles into his office at the FA’s headquarters in Soho Square after being appointed in 2001
Eriksson was greeted with a man dressed as John Bull as he arrived for his first day at work
Eriksson was a popular figure at Lazio, having guided them to a series of major prizes
Eriksson waves farewell to the Lazio faithful at the Stadio Olimpico before heading to England
Eriksson was the centre of attention ahead of England’s World Cup qualifier with Germany
Michael Owen’s hat-trick earned England one of their greatest victories of modern times
England’s unforgettable 5-1 win in Munich offered hope Eriksson could deliver success
David Beckham’s last-gasp free-kick against Greece sent England to the 2002 World Cup
Eriksson with a rare glimmer of emotion as he salutes the Old Trafford crowd after qualification
That opened the way to qualification for the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea, though it took Beckham’s dramatic last-minute free-kick against Greece to avoid a tricky play-off with Ukraine.
As much as Eriksson wanted his private life to remain out of the spotlight, the white-hot spotlight of his job meant that was always going to be impossible.
The build-up to the World Cup was dominated by endless tabloid stories about his affair with Swedish TV host Jonsson, before Eriksson returned to his partner of four years, Dell’Olio.
Eriksson would later tell the History Channel: ‘In 2002, when it came out about a woman, well a Swedish one [Jonsson] I wondered what I should tell the players.
‘It had nothing to do with football but I was their manager and we were going into a World Cup.
‘I told them ‘sorry’ but one of the players stood up and said: ‘Boss, welcome to England’. That was it. I felt good, it was over.’
At the World Cup, England came to life with a 1-0 win over Argentina in the group and a 3-0 trouncing of Denmark in the last-16 before encountering Brazil in the quarters.
They led through Owen only for David Seaman’s hapless misjudgement of Ronaldinho’s flighted free-kick consigned them to the exit.
‘We wanted Winston Churchill and we got Iain Duncan Smith,’ was defender Gareth Southgate’s scathing assessment of Eriksson’s half-time team talk.
The coach was pilloried for dithering over subs and tactical changes when Ronaldinho was sent off with 33 minutes to salvage the game. That would be something Southgate now better understands.
But the biggest frustration was that England had an excellent chance to go all the way. Had they held on, it was Turkey in the semi-finals and Germany, a team they’d stuck five past only 10 months earlier, in the final.
David Seaman’s horrendous misjudgement of Ronaldinho’s free-kick cost England in 2002
(Left to right) Nicky Butt, Michael Owen, Paul Scholes and Rio Ferdinand after England’s exit
Eriksson consoles a distraught Seaman after his misjudgement of Ronaldinho’s free-kick
It didn’t do Eriksson any harm – a year later he was spotted with Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon, leading to paper speculation he was the chosen man for Roman Abramovich’s revolution.
If it was a game of poker, the FA were the ones who folded, extending Eriksson’s contract until 2008 and upping his pay to £5m-a-year.
At Euro 2004, England harnessed the raw energy of 18-year-old Wayne Rooney to sweep aside Switzerland and Croatia before again coming unstuck in the quarter-finals.
Despite leading hosts Portugal thanks to an early Owen goal, England were dragged to extra time and penalties, which in those days only meant one thing.
Beckham and Darius Vassell were the guilty parties as England’s post-1966 heartache continued.
Despite the widely-regarded view the talents of the ‘Golden Generation’ were going to waste and criticism of Sven’s passive dug-out manner from a country that expects passion, the FA stuck with him for the 2006 World Cup.
Sven with his former partner, the Italian lawyer Nancy Dell’Olio at a dinner in 2006
Rumours of Eriksson’s relationship with TV presenter Ulrika Jonsson emerged in 2002 and were later confirmed
Eriksson’s affair with FA secretary Faria Alam was all over the papers during 2004
That was despite the revelation Eriksson had another affair with Alam, who was a secretary at the FA. Again, Dell’Olio stuck with her man though they eventually separated in 2007.
At the 2006 World Cup in Germany, as the WAG circus in Baden Baden rivalled the actual team’s performances for column inches, England once again fell miserably short.
The tournament was preceded by a memorable shouting match with Man United boss Sir Alex Ferguson, who learned Eriksson was planning to play Rooney despite the broken metatarsal he’d suffered.
As FA vice-chairman David Dein later recalled in his book: ‘The only time I ever saw Sven annoyed was when Sir Alex Ferguson called him at our World Cup base in 2006.
‘Fergie was furious that Wayne Rooney was going to play at the World Cup, with England gambling on his recovery from a broken metatarsal. ‘You’re finished,’ he screamed.
‘Sven lost it. ‘F*** off,’ he said. ‘Alex, I will pick Rooney. Have a nice holiday. Ciao. Bye.’
Eriksson reacts during England’s quarter-final loss on penalties to Portugal at Euro 2004
Hopes had been high for England’s talented ‘Golden Generation’ at the tournament in Portugal. Back Row left to right: Michael Owen, Ashley Cole, John Terry, Sol Campbell, Wayne Rooney, David James, Frank Lampard. Front Row, left to right: Steven Gerrard, Paul Scholes, David Beckham, Gary Neville
Beckham reacts after missing his penalty kick in the shoot-out defeat to Portugal in Lisbon
Laboured wins over Paraguay, Trinidad and Tobago, and Ecuador didn’t augur well and so it proved when Portugal – with ‘winker’ Cristiano Ronaldo getting his United team-mate Rooney sent off – again beat England on penalties in a quarter-final.
By this time, Eriksson had also been duped by the News of the World ‘Fake Sheikh’ Mazher Mahmood into saying he’d be willing to leave England for Aston Villa, apparently on the brink of a takeover by a wealthy Arab.
This time, there was no way back for him as England moved on to Steve McClaren and further misery.
Not that Sven was away from England for too long. Snubbing other international jobs, he rocked up at Man City in July 2007, almost a year to the day since his England departure.
The 2006 World Cup saw England crash out again to Portugal after Rooney’s red card
The ‘Golden Generation’ had seen their best chance of winning a tournament fade to dust
Eriksson scratches his head as the loss to Portugal signalled the end of his time with England
Despite home and away victories over Sir Alex Ferguson’s United, it was a season of failure as City ended up ninth in the table.
The season ended with the humiliation of an 8-1 defeat at Middlesbrough and City’s Thai owner Thaksin Shinawatra got rid of him.
After a stint with the Mexico national team. Eriksson resurfaced in England as director of football at Notts County in July 2009.
He was apparently being paid £2m-a-year by Middle East consortium Mount Finance and Eriksson somehow convinced former England defender Sol Campbell to come to Meadow Lane.
Eriksson was Manchester City coach for the 2007-08 season but that, too, was ill-fated
Eriksson didn’t see eye-to-eye with City’s Thai owner Thaksin Shinawatra and lasted a year
Amid a flurry of speculation that David Beckham and Luis Figo would soon be playing by the Trent, unimaginable riches were being promised by new owner Russell King.
There was one issue – all of it was completely fake. The oldest Football League club were apparently not being backed by the Bahrain royal family after all and it very nearly destroyed them.
Eriksson, realising the scam he’d been caught up in, waived his multi-million pay-off.
The Swede later had a brief spell as Leicester City’s boss and was linked to the Leeds job in 2012.
But a coaching career that rarely featured a dull moment wound down in China and the Philippines instead before cancer struck.
Eriksson’s brief stint as director of football at Notts County was another bizarre episode