Swedish football manager Sven-Goran Eriksson, who coached England from 2001 to 2006, died on Monday at the age of 76 after a battle with pancreatic cancer, his agent said. “He passed away peacefully this morning with his family around him at his home,” Eriksson’s agent Bo Gustavsson said. The Swede, who managed a number of high-profile teams and took England to World Cup quarter-finals in 2002 and 2006, announced in February 2023 that he was stepping back from public life due to “health issues”.
In January, he told public broadcaster Sveriges Radio that he was suffering from pancreatic cancer and that his doctor’s assessment was that he had “at best maybe a year (to live), at worst a little less”. “He has for a long time fought bravely with his illness, but now it came to an end,” his children Lina and Johan Eriksson said in a statement. After he made his illness public, he received “an amazing response from friends and football fans around Europe”, they said, adding that he was invited to visit teams in England, Italy, Portugal and Sweden where “they shared their love for football and for dad.
” “I get to hear it while I’m alive and I’m incredibly grateful for that,” Eriksson said before his passing. “I have had the best job in the world and I was happy every day for long periods. It’s been fantastic.
” Born on February 5, 1948 in Sunne in western Sweden, Eriksson, who went by “Svennis” to Swedes, found success as a football manage.