In February 2023, the famous Swedish specialist Sven-Eran Eriksson, who was at the peak of fame in the craft in the “nineties” and early “zero” years, left the post of sports director of Karlstad. The venerable ex-mentor worked at this club for only about a year, and in the new position of sports director for only a couple of months. Then the media reported that health problems prevented Eriksson from continuing active work in professional football, but there were no specifics in the public sphere.
Almost a year later, in January 2024, Sven-Eran Eriksson admitted that he had a terminal stage of cancer. At best, as the ex-coach of Roma, Benfica, Lazio, Manchester City, the England national team and a number of other teams admitted, doctors gave him only one more year. At worst, even less…
“Everyone can see that my illness is not very good. Yes, it’s cancer. But I will try to fight as long as possible. I understand that at best I will live for a year, at worst – less. Although at best, maybe longer. Doctors cannot be one hundred percent sure; they cannot set a day. It’s better not to think about it, you need to trick your brain. You can walk around thinking about it all the time, sit at home, look pathetic and say that you are so unlucky. But we need to see the positive aspects. You can’t bury yourself,” Eriksson said.
Sven-Eran Eriksson turned out to be the last head coach of Manchester City in the “pre-sheikh” period of this club. From 2001 to 2006, he led the England national team, and then accepted an invitation from the “citizens”, with whom he worked only for one season, 2007/08. That was the period when such players as Valeriy Bozhinov, Vedran Chorluka, Darius Vassell, Stephen Ireland, Emil Mpenza played for Manchester City, and the team’s most expensive player was ex-Shakhtar midfielder Elano, who recently admitted that his main mistake in his career is leaving the English Premier League too early.
At the end of the 2007/08 season, Manchester City finished in ninth place in the English Premier League standings, losing to fellow countrymen and bitter opponents Manchester United, who became champions under the majestic Sir Alex Ferguson, by as many as 32 points.
In the summer of 2008, a large-scale revolution began in Manchester City, which first led to a change of ownership of the club, and subsequently to total changes in personnel policy. Sven-Eran Eriksson was actually fired by the new owners, although the club officially informed about the separation by mutual agreement of the parties. It is unlikely that the Swede wanted to leave the camp of the “citizens” so early, with whom he had a contract for another two years, but Sven-Eran could not go against the will of the sheikhs.
After that, Eriksson once again returned to England to work as a head coach: during the 2010/11 season, he was called to Leicester, where the Swedish specialist worked for just over a year. It’s true that that experience had nothing to do with the Premier League, because the “Foxes” at that moment lived in the Championship, and they were lucky enough to return to the elite division only in the 2014/15 season.
After Leicester, Eriksson worked as a technical director for clubs in Thailand and the UAE, was the head coach of several teams in the Chinese Super League, and led the Philippine national team from 2018 to 2019. Later, Sven-Eran moved to the modest Swedish Karlstad, but he never managed to realize, perhaps, his main dream in coaching – to lead Liverpool.
The Swedish coach recently said that Eriksson had always dreamed of becoming a coach of the Reds in a conversation with a Sky News journalist.
“I always wanted to become a Liverpool manager. My father is still alive and he still supports Liverpool, and I support Liverpool too, I have always been a fan of them. That’s why I always wanted to be a Liverpool manager, and even though it will never happen, I’m still a Reds fan,” Eriksson said.
“I’m a Liverpool supporter… I’ve always been.”
Sven-Goran Eriksson is called @skynewsniall he “always wished to be the manager of Liverpool” – and says he thinks England can win this summer’s Euros.https://t.co/SGZSui6EXl
📺 Sky 501, Virgin 602, Freeview 233 and YouTube pic.twitter.com/Zsj2iI78cE
— Sky News (@SkyNews) January 12, 2024
After this, Liverpool fans literally flooded social networks with calls for the club’s management to give Eriksson the opportunity to be the team’s head coach. Of course, it was not about the resignation of the current Reds coach Jurgen Klopp, but only about a purely symbolic, but extremely beautiful gesture – giving Sven-Jeran the opportunity to lead Liverpool in the match against Ajax, which is scheduled for March 23 and will take place on Anfield is the club’s home arena.
#LFC Legends will take on AFC Ajax Legends in the next annual charity match on Saturday March 23, 2024 at Anfield 🙌
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) November 14, 2023
The March match against Ajax will be of a charitable nature. Legends from both clubs will take part in it, and club legends Sir Kenny Dalglish and Ian Rush will lead the Reds from the bench, as originally intended.
The fans’ initiative to help make Sven-Jeran Eriksson’s dream come true was also supported by some ex-Liverpool football players, in particular Robbie Fowler. And journalists have already managed to find out the opinion of the Swedish coach himself on such an initiative, and whether Eriksson will agree to be at the helm of the Reds legends in the match against Ajax if the organizers send him an appropriate invitation.
“Of course I would agree, it was my dream. There will be a lot of good football players there. This has always been my dream, but I’m not complaining. I’ve had a lot of good football teams, national teams and clubs, so I’m happy anyway,” Eriksson concluded.
The current head coach of Liverpool, Jurgen Klopp, did not remain aloof from this story. At one of his last press conferences, the German specialist said that he was ready to help Sven-Eran Eriksson become a full-fledged coach of the Reds.
“Obviously, when we all heard about it, it was very moving news. It was the first time I learned of his admiration and love for Liverpool and that he had been a Reds fan all his life. Now I’ve heard about the legends match against Ajax and stuff like that. I’m not responsible for this.”
“The only thing I can say is that we will be absolutely delighted for him to come here. He can sit in my place in my office and do my work during the day if he wants. It’s not a problem”.
“Being on the sidelines is maybe a little more difficult. If he’s here, I’ll show him around and tell him how this wonderful club has developed over the years. I think we will definitely tell him all this. I’m sure he can come and spend some wonderful hours here,” Klopp said.
Officially, Liverpool’s top management has not yet responded to calls from fans and journalists regarding a possible short-term collaboration between the Reds and Eriksson. However, there is still enough time before the March match against the Ajax legends, and the invitation itself from Jurgen Klopp is not just a beautiful gesture from one coach to another, but something much more. This act of the German mentor demonstrates not only his phenomenal human qualities, but also makes it clear that it is not too late to make dreams come true, never and under any, even the most critical, circumstances.
2024-01-20 20:55:00
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