August 21 – Terminally ill former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson has shared a poignant goodbye message in a new documentary about his life.
Eriksson, 76, revealed in January that he had pancreatic cancer and is approaching the end of his life with a ‘best case’ scenario seeing him only have a year left to live.
In a touching new film, due to be released on Amazon Prime on Friday, Eriksson says that he hopes to be remembered as “a positive guy, trying to do everything he could do”.
Eriksson was the first foreign coach to manage England and led the side to the quarter-finals of the 2002 and 2006 World Cups and 2004 Euros. Prior to that appointment, he had success across Europe, winning the Swedish, Portuguese and Italian top divisions with Gothenburg, Benfica and Lazio.
Outside of football he has had a colourful private life with a series of high-profile affairs but makes it known in the film that he “didn’t do anything criminal”.
During the film, Eriksson reflects that his life has been “like a fairy tale”.
“It was not a normal life,” he said. “I had a good life, maybe too good, you have to pay for it.”
Speaking on a visit to Fryken lake, near his home in Sunne, Sweden, Eriksson admitted it could be his final resting place.
“I always thought it’s a great place to sleep,” he said. “The ashes could be thrown into the water here. It feels like home.”
At the end of the documentary he gave a final message to former players, coaches and supporters after speaking openly about his affairs.
“I think we are all scared of the day when we die, but life is about death as well.”
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