Lazio’s legendary coach, Sven-Goran Eriksson, is currently fighting cancer. The man from Sweden was even sentenced to only have one more year to live. Sven-Goran Eriksson, who once coached Sampdoria and Lazio, worked as sporting director at Swedish third division club, IF Karlstad. However, in February last year, Eriksson, who is now 75 years old, resigned due to health problems. Eriksson called his health problems something that is difficult to explain.
Later, in an interview with Swedish radio P1, Eriksson revealed that he is currently battling cancer. Eriksson, who has also managed the England national team, even admitted that he only has a year left to live.
“Everyone understood that I was not well, they imagined it was cancer and it was true,” said Eriksson, quoted from Football Italia. “I have to fight as long as I can. In the best case scenario, (life expectancy) is one year or even more, at worst even less than that. In reality, no one can confirm it, it’s better not to think about it,” said the Sunne-born figure.
Eriksson said that he suddenly fainted while running a distance of 5 kilometers. After carrying out an examination, he was declared to have had a stroke and had a tumor.
“I suddenly fainted when I was running 5 kilometers. After a medical consultation, I found out that I had had a stroke and that I had had a tumor. I don’t know how long, maybe a month, maybe a year,” said Eriksson.
Even though he was diagnosed with cancer and did not have long to live, Eriksson remained positive. “You can trick your brain. Think positively and see things in the best way, don’t get lost in difficulties. This is definitely the biggest of all, but still get something good from this experience,” said Eriksson.
As a coach, Sven-Goran Eriksson has an impressive track record in the Italian League, especially when coaching Lazio. Eriksson successfully gave Lazio various prestigious titles, including a Serie A scudetto and a Cup Winners’ Cup.
Eriksson also had a close relationship with Indonesian football when PSSI (Indonesia national football association) built the Primavera project by sending young players to Italy in the 1990s. The last team in Asean coached by Sven-Goran Eriksson was the Philippine national team from 2018 to 2019.
