Eriksson’s impressive track record as a coach across Europe in the 1980s and 1990s won him the lucrative job of coaching England at two World Cups
“We’ve sold our birthright down the fjord to a nation of seven million skiers and hammer-throwers who spend half their year living in total darkness,” thundered the Daily Mail in November 2000 when the news broke that Sven-Göran Eriksson was to become England’s first foreign-born manager.
Born in Sunne to parents who worked as a bus conductor and a nurse, Eriksson studied economics after school while failing to carve out a football career as a defender in the Swedish lower divisions. He did, however, befriend Tord Grip, an up-and-coming coach who one day would serve as Eriksson’s right-hand man with England. Grip, managing Degerfors at the time, made him his assistant coach. Eriksson subsequently replaced Grip as manager, and good results saw IFK Gothenburg come calling in 1979.
Five years at Sampdoria were followed by four at Lazio, where club president Sergio Cragnotti’s financial largesse helped Eriksson to win Serie A with a team full of big names. Then came England. Eriksson began with a bang as his team sensationally hammered Germany 5-1 in a World Cup qualifier in Munich just seven months into his reign. But England subsequently froze against Greece at Old Trafford, and only David Beckham’s last-minute free-kick secured their place at the 2002 finals.
Before the competition began, the FA foolishly based the players’ wives and girlfriends in the spa town of Baden-Baden, where their night-time clubbing was catnip to the tabloids. Eriksson himself was still in thrall to the ageing Beckham, an effectively undroppable captain. Playing stiltedly, England only came to life against Portugal in the quarter-final. But after Rooney was sent off for stamping on Ricardo Carvalho, another loss on penalties ensued.
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