Swedish football coach, Sven-Goran Eriksson, announced that he may not have much longer than a year to live due to cancer.
The former England coach revealed to Swedish Radio P1 that he abruptly collapsed and later learned he had cancer.
Due to health concerns, he announced in February of last year that he would be cutting back on his public appearances.
In an interview that was released on Thursday, Eriksson stated, “Everyone knows that I have a disease that is not good, and everyone guesses that it is cancer and it is.”
According to Eriksson, his pancreatic cancer is incurable.
“I might have a year at the most, maybe a little less,” he stated.
The 75-year-old stated he is making an effort to think optimistically.
“I could sit at home and be grumpy and think I’m unlucky and so on, and go and think about it all the time,” he stated. “I think getting there is something that can be done with ease. No, keep an optimistic outlook and avoid dwelling on hardship. Since this is the largest setback, naturally,” he continued.
Eriksson, who made his reputation winning league titles at the club level with Lazio in Italy, Benfica in Portugal, and IFK Gothenburg in his native Sweden, was England’s first-ever foreign-born coach from 2001 to 2006.
At the World Cups in 2002 and 2006, Eriksson captained a group of players known as the “golden generation,” which included David Beckham, Steven Gerrard, and Wayne Rooney.
The squad advanced to the quarterfinals in both competitions before losing to Brazil and Portugal, respectively.
The sole other significant competition played under Eriksson, the 2004 European Championship, saw England eliminated in the quarterfinals by Portugal, this time after a penalty shootout similar to the one that occurred at the 2006 World Cup.
Eriksson most recently served as sporting director at Karlstad, a team in Sweden’s third level. He had previously served as head coach of the Philippine national team from 2018 to 2019.
