Sven-Göran Eriksson

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Sven-Göran Eriksson
Personal information
Full name	Sven-Göran Aune Eriksson
Date of birth	February 5, 1948 (age 59)
Place of birth	Torsby, Sweden
Playing position	Manager (former Right Back)
Club information
Current club	[None]
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1966–71 1971–73 1973–75	Torsby IF SK Sifhälla KB Karlskoga	? (?) ? (?) ? (?)
Teams managed
1977–78 1979–82 1982–84 1984–87 1987–89 1989–92 1992–97 1997–2001 2001–06	Degerfors IF IFK Göteborg SL Benfica AS Roma ACF Fiorentina SL Benfica U.C. Sampdoria S.S. Lazio England
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 12:00, 4 June 2006 (UTC). 2 National team caps and goals correct as of 12:00, 4 June 2006 (UTC). * Appearances (Goals)

Sven-Göran Eriksson (help·info) (IPA: [svɛn'jœːrɑn 'eːrɪksɔn], born February 5, 1948) is a currently unemployed football coach from Sweden. He is the only coach to have won the Double (league and cup) in three different countries, Sweden, Portugal and Italy. He also won the UEFA Cup with IFK Göteborg, and took Benfica to the European Cup Final. Eriksson stepped down from his most recent position as the English national football team manager following England's exit from the 2006 World Cup; there was, however, considerable speculation that he was forced out by the English football authorities due to his tenure being punctuated by well-documented tabloid reports of his private life.

Contents 1 Early life and managerial career 2 Manager of England 3 Criticism 4 Notable feats as England manager 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Early life and managerial career

Born in Torsby, in Värmland, Eriksson had an unremarkable playing career in the lower divisions of Swedish football before being forced to retire prematurely due to a knee injury in 1975. After retirement, Eriksson became first a coach, and then manager of Degerfors IF, taking the side from the Third Division to the First Division in three years.

His success with Degerfors IF attracted the attention of much larger clubs, and Eriksson joined IFK Göteborg in 1979. He won the Swedish Cup in his first season, and a "treble" of League, Cup and UEFA Cup (Göteborg beating Hamburger SV 4-0) in 1982.

Eriksson's European success led to him being head-hunted by Portuguese club SL Benfica, and he had a similarly quick impact there, Benfica winning the Portuguese Championship, the Portuguese Cup and finishing runners-up in the UEFA Cup. After a second Championship the following year, Eriksson moved on to Italy, becoming boss of AS Roma. He was not as immediately successful at Roma as he had been before, but he still won a Coppa Italia in 1986.

After a trophyless two years at Fiorentina, Eriksson moved back to Benfica for a second stint in 1989, where he led the team to the final of the European Cup (losing to AC Milan 1-0) in 1990, and another League title in 1991. In 1992 Eriksson returned to Italy to try his luck again, with Sampdoria, but he only managed another Coppa Italia in 1994.

Eriksson finally found major success in Italy when he joined Lazio in 1997 (after controversially reneging on a deal to join English club Blackburn Rovers); with Lazio he won the Coppa Italia in 1998 and 2000, the European Cup Winners' Cup (1999 - the very last tournament), and the Serie A title (the Scudetto) in 2000 — only the second time that the Roman club had won the Italian championship in their history.

[edit] Manager of England

Following the resignation of England manager Kevin Keegan after a home loss to Germany in October 2000, the Football Association specifically pursued Eriksson as his replacement. Eriksson had initially agreed to take over after the expiration of his contract in summer 2001, but deceided to resign his post at Lazio early, and he officially began his England duties in January of that year. Eriksson was the first foreigner to be appointed coach of the England national team.

Eriksson turned round England's bid for qualification for the 2002 FIFA World Cup, with several crucial wins over lesser opposition before his first real test, England's rematch with Germany in Munich on September 1, 2001. England crushed their long-time rivals 5-1. Despite this England still needed a late equaliser at home to Greece to automatically qualify, and England's initially strong performance in the 2002 World Cup (when in a group stage with Nigeria, Argentina and Sweden) finals culminated in a 2-1 quarter finals loss to 10-man Brazil, who subsequently won the tournament.

After the World Cup, Eriksson's England came under more fire after an embarrassing home loss to Australia in a friendly and a draw with Macedonia in a Euro 2004 qualifier.^{[citation needed]} England qualified for Euro 2004 and at the top of their qualification group, but the team's performance was decidedly mixed, and Eriksson was again criticized^{[citation needed]} for England's overly-defensive performances in their first-round loss to France and their quarter-final elimination by hosts Portugal, which England lost on penalties. Eriksson has also been questioned for his perceived idiosyncratic substitution technique during friendlies and playing players out of position.^{[citation needed]} His controlled, level-headed approach - he is seldom seen to display emotions publically - also drew speculations as to whether his passive style inspired his players.^{[citation needed]} However, Eriksson still maintains a superb competitive match record.

In February 2005, Eriksson was again criticised,^{[citation needed]} after he played striker Andy Johnson on the right-wing, in a poor-quality friendly against The Netherlands.

Eriksson has also had to weather considerable tabloid reporting of his private life, most notably his affairs with the television presenter Ulrika Jonsson[1], and FA secretary Faria Alam [2][3] (in a scandal that led to the resignation of the FA's chief executive, Mark Palios). Despite this, Eriksson has maintained a relationship with long-term partner, Italian property lawyer Nancy Dell'Olio.

On 7 September 2005, Eriksson's England team lost a World Cup qualifying match against Northern Ireland 1-0, the first time that England had lost to that team since 1972. Although it was only Eriksson's first ever defeat in a World Cup or European Championship qualifying match, it brought his position under unprecedented pressure and he was criticised, both by some fans and by BBC commentators, for his lack of charisma and tactical awareness. Criticism continued as England scraped a 1-0 victory over Austria in a game which saw David Beckham controversially sent off. Some of this criticism was answered, however, as England put in a much improved performance, despite the absence of David Beckham through suspension and Sol Campbell and Steven Gerrard through injury, in a 2-1 win against Poland.

In 2006, he was recorded saying he would be willing to leave England to manage Aston Villa if England won the World Cup, after being duped into believing that a wealthy Arab would buy the club and wanted him as manager. The wealthy "Arab" was in fact the "Fake Sheikh", an undercover News of the World reporter.

On January 23, the Football Association announced that Eriksson would leave his job after the 2006 FIFA World Cup, and it was thought that the News of the World allegations played a part in this decision.^{[citation needed]} This was later denied by both parties with Eriksson explaining that there was a prior arrangement to terminate his contract immediately after the World Cup. Following a lengthy period of public and media speculation as to his successor the FA later announced that Steve McClaren, Eriksson's assistant, would take over the reins after the World Cup.

The week before England's first game in Germany, England beat Hungary 3-1 and Jamaica 6-0 at home.

England were unbeaten after the group stage of the tournament, with wins against Paraguay and Trinidad and Tobago, followed by a draw against Sweden. The manner of these results were considered to be far from satisfactory.^{[citation needed]} Eriksson attracted further negative media attention as a consequence.

A David Beckham trademark free kick was enough to see Eriksson's England past Ecuador in a lacklustre 1-0 encounter. However, Eriksson once again fell to nemesis Luiz Felipe Scolari's Portugal. They defeated England 3-1 on penalties with the score 0-0 after extra time, with Beckham lost to injury and Wayne Rooney sent off for 'stamping'. The result was Eriksson's third successive exit in a major tournament quarter-final. In his farewell speech, Eriksson wished England well and singled out Rooney for special praise, advising the press not to blame the youngster's dismissal for England's exit.

Notwithstanding the failure to win a single trophy in international tournaments, many regard the five and a half years of Sven-Goran Eriksson's tenure as head coach to be statistically among the most successful periods in England FC's history with only four competitive matches lost (N.Ireland qualifyer and three quarter final matches), top qualification in each international tournament qualifying group and the elevation to FIFA world ranking No.4 just prior to Eriksson's resignation taking effect.

[edit] Criticism

• Eriksson has also had to weather considerable speculation about his private life, most notably his affairs with Ulrika Jonsson and Faria Alam [4][5]

[edit] Notable feats as England manager

Despite encountering no small amount of criticism during his time as England manager, Sven-Goran Eriksson's time in the post was notable for the following reasons ^[1]:

• 67 matches spanning over 5 years with only 5 competitive losses (3 inside 90 mins). This record is only beaten by Sir Alf Ramsey and Glenn Hoddle, excluding Caretaker managers.
• He never lost a competitive match by more than 1 goal.
• He is the only England manager in post for 3 or more major tournaments not to fail to qualify for any (each time qualifying without the need for playoffs). Of course, both the European Championships and World Cup now admit twice as many teams as they once did, making the job of qualifying approximately half as difficult for European countries.
• He took England to their first European Championship quarter-finals on foreign soil since 1972 - their third ever.
• The 5-1 defeat of Germany on September 1 2001, will probably rank as Sven's most significant single game in charge, as well as his point of highest popularity. It remains Germany's largest competitive home defeat and the best England result against probably their biggest rival. England had never previously beaten Germany in a competitive match in Germany and had not beaten them at all in the World Cup competition since 1966. Following the defeat, the host of popular sports comedy quiz They Think It's All Over unveiled an icon-style picture of Sven, comicly depicting him as a saint-like figure.
• England were ranked as a top ten team by FIFA for the vast majority of Sven's time as manager, and they improved to 5th after the 2006 World Cup. Between 1975 and 2000 they were rarely in the top ten and often fell below 20.
• England earned the second seed of the 2006 World Cup, ahead of all other European teams and only behind top-ranked Brazil.
• Reaching the quarter-finals, which England did in all of Sven's tournaments was an improvement on both of England's preceding two tournaments (World Cup 1998 and Euro 2000), when England were knocked out before the quarter-finals.

Despite all this, the media's initial reactions to Eriksson's departure following the 2006 World Cup generally focused on England's failure to progress past the quarter-finals of any major tournament and the manner of the exit in 2006, compared to his salary, which was considerably more than those of other international managers. Eriksson's supporters cite the fact that in the 56 years since entering their first major tournament, England have only twice won major tournament quarter finals on foreign soil. Both being in Italy in the 1968 Euro and 1990 World Cup.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official profile on TheFA.com

Preceded by Alberto Zaccheroni	Serie A Coach of the Year 2000	Succeeded by Carlo Ancelotti
Preceded by Peter Taylor (caretaker)	England national football team manager 2001–2006	Succeeded by Steve McClaren

	England squad - 2002 FIFA World Cup Quarter-finalists
1 Seaman | 2 Mills | 3 A. Cole | 4 Sinclair | 5 Ferdinand | 6 Campbell | 7 Beckham | 8 Scholes | 9 Fowler | 10 Owen | 11 Heskey | 12 Brown | 13 Martyn | 14 Bridge | 15 Keown | 16 Southgate | 17 Sheringham | 18 Hargreaves | 19 J. Cole | 20 Vassell | 21 Butt | 22 James | 23 Dyer | Coach: Eriksson

	England squad - 2006 FIFA World Cup Quarter-finalists
1 Robinson | 2 Neville | 3 A. Cole | 4 Gerrard | 5 Ferdinand | 6 Terry | 7 Beckham | 8 Lampard | 9 Rooney | 10 Owen | 11 J. Cole | 12 Campbell | 13 James | 14 Bridge | 15 Carragher | 16 Hargreaves | 17 Jenas | 18 Carrick | 19 Lennon | 20 Downing | 21 Crouch | 22 Carson | 23 Walcott | Coach: Eriksson