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Sven-Göran Eriksson

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Sven-Göran Eriksson
Personal information
Full name Sven-Göran Eriksson
Position(s) Right back
Team information
Current team
 Côte d'Ivoire (manager)
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1966–1971 Torsby IF
1971–1973 SK Sifhälla
1973–1975 KB Karlskoga
Managerial career
1977–1978 Degerfors
1979–1982 Göteborg
1982–1984 Benfica
1984–1987 Roma
1987–1989 Fiorentina
1989–1992 Benfica
1992–1997 Sampdoria
1997–2001 Lazio
2001–2006 England
2007–2008 Manchester City
2008–2009 Mexico
2010- Côte d'Ivoire
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Sven-Göran Eriksson ([svɛnˈjœːran ˈeːrɪksɔn]ⓘ) (born 5 February 1948), commonly referred to as Sven, or in Sweden by his nickname Svennis,[1] is a Swedish football manager. He is the current manager of Côte d'Ivoire national football team.

Eriksson was a Swedish football player and was forced to retire early from an unremarkable playing career in the Swedish lower leagues, due to injury in 1975. He went on to become a successful club football manager from 1978 to 2001, in the Swedish, Portuguese and Italian top football divisions, most notably with Italian club Lazio. During this time Eriksson achieved several national league, domestic cup and two notable UEFA competition wins. With his achievements in this period, Eriksson is so far the only manager who has achieved the league-and-cup double in three different countries (Sweden, Portugal and Italy).

On leaving Lazio, Eriksson controversially became the first foreign manager of the English national team, succeeding Kevin Keegan in 2001. He had a relatively long spell as England manager, managing the team for two World Cups and Euro 2004 in between. While being steadily and repeatedly supported by the Football Association, and having attained a good overall statistical record with England, after disappointing performances it was announced in January 2006 that Eriksson would step down after the World Cup in that June, which England subsequently exited at the quarter-final stage.

After a year out of the game, in July 2007 Eriksson agreed to a three-year contract with the recently taken over top-flight but struggling English club Manchester City[2] worth £2 million a year plus bonuses[3], agreed with their wealthy new Thai owner Thaksin Shinawatra. After a good start to the season, with his early signings creating an impact, it was announced by many news sources that in a surprise move, Shinawatra wished to replace Eriksson in May 2008 after only one full season, because of an "avalanche of very poor results which is unacceptable at this level". On 2 June 2008, Eriksson officially left Manchester City. On 3 June 2008, he was officially signed to become the manager of the Mexican national team, despite mass protests by the Mexican fans. He was sacked on 2 April 2009. Immediately afterwards, the Mexican fans' association held a "victory rally" attended by approximately 30,000 angry supporters.[4] Eriksson was Director of Football at English League Two team Notts County from July 2009 to February 2010, attracted by a Middle East consortium which claimed to seek to take the club to the top of the Premiership.

Playing career

Born in Sunne and raised in Torsby, in Värmland, Eriksson had an unremarkable playing career playing as a right-back in the lower divisions of Swedish football.[5] The highest level he played at was Division 2 with Karlskoga, where he met Tord Grip, before being forced to retire prematurely due to a knee injury in 1975 aged 28.,[6]

Management career

Degerfors

After retirement, Eriksson received an offer to become Tord Grip's assistant at Degerfors.[7] A year later, Grip was appointed assistant manager of the Swedish national team, and Eriksson became Degerfors' manager, winning promotion to Division 2 in 1978.

Göteborg

His success with assistant manager Tom Chadney by his side attracted the attention of much larger clubs, and Eriksson joined Göteborg in 1979. He won the Swedish Cup in his first season, and a "treble" of League, Cup and UEFA Cup (Göteborg beating Hamburg 4-0 in the final) in 1982.

Benfica

Eriksson's European success led to him being head-hunted by Portuguese club 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 trainer of Roma.

Roma

He was not as immediately successful at Roma as he had been before, but he still won a Coppa Italia in 1986.

Fiorentina and return to Benfica

After a trophyless two years at Fiorentina, Eriksson moved back to Benfica for a second stint in 1989, where he led the Portuguese side to the final of the European Cup (losing to Milan 1-0) in 1990, and another League title in 1991.

Sampdoria

In 1992 Eriksson returned to Italy to try his luck again, with Sampdoria, where he managed to win another Coppa Italia in 1994.

Lazio

In 1997, he agreed to leave Sampdoria at the end of the season to manage Blackburn Rovers. However, later on that year, he went back on his word and opted to stay in Italy and become the new manager at Lazio. Eriksson stated personal family reasons for wanting to stay in Italy.

Rovers eventually appointed Roy Hodgson.

Lazio

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 and the Italian Supercup 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. That season had begun with glory in the UEFA Super Cup, winning 1-0 against Manchester United. Bankrolled by Sergio Cragnotti's investment in the team - some £274 million in over 4 seasons - Eriksson amassed trophies on a remarkable scale, and because of this many fans consider him to be Lazio's most successful manager ever.

England manager

World Cup 2002

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 decided to resign his post at Lazio early, and he officially began his England duties in January of that year. Eriksson was the first foreign manager 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 1 September 2001. England crushed their long-time rivals 5-1. Despite this England still needed a late equalizer 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 went on to win the tournament.

Euro 2004

After winning their first qualifying match in Slovakia, England drew at home with Macedonia and were then booed off by their fans after losing a friendly to Australia.[8] However England won their next five qualifiers and, needing a point from the last game to qualify, drew 0-0 in Turkey to top the group.

In their first match in the finals, England were winning 1-0 against France after 90 minutes but lost after Zinédine Zidane scored twice in injury time. However, a 3-0 victory over Switzerland and a 4-2 victory over Croatia meant England still qualified for the quarter-finals, where they lost to the hosts Portugal on penalties, but Sol Campbell had a goal controversially disallowed in normal time with the score at 1-1.

World Cup 2006

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 criticized, 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 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 23 January, 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.[9] 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.[10] 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 on Ricardo Carvalho. 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.

During his time as England manager Eriksson was constantly in the public eye due to various affairs whilst dating his then partner Nancy Dell'Olio. The women with whom he had affairs were famous Swedish television presenter Ulrika Jonsson and his secretary at the Football Association (FA), Faria Alam, who incidentally also had sexual relations with FA chief executive Mark Palios.

Sven was controversially pipped to the prestigious title of "Durex Man of the Year" by Park Chu-Young in 2006.

Notable feats as England manager

  • Germany 1-5 England World Cup qualifier 2001
  • England 10-0 Argentina 2002 World Cup
  • Improved England's FIFA World ranking from 99th place (January 2001) to 1st place (July 2006)

(highest ranking No.4 during World Cup 2006)

  • Managed to reach the quarter final in three consecutive tournaments (WC 2002, Euro 2004, WC 2006). No other European country achieved this during this period, and on an international level only Brazil. England was also, apart from Sweden, the only European country that did not suffer elimination from group play or failure to qualify during this time (2001–2006). Coincidentally, the same manager Luiz Felipe Scolari knocked England out of all three of these tournaments, first with Brazil and then twice with Portugal.
  • Achieved the highest point percentage in Major Tournament Matches of all time for an England manager.[11]
  • Lost only 3 full-time competitive games and achieved top qualifying place in all three International tournaments during his five and a half years as England manager.
  • Rated by the FA as England's 2nd most successful Manager after Alf Ramsey.

Eriksson is the only England manager never to have led an England team out at their permanent home venue of the old Wembley Stadium or the new Wembley Stadium. Wembley was closed for redevelopment the same month that the FA asked him to take over, October 2000, and he resigned before the new Wembley Stadium was opened. Note that he didn't begin duties until January 2001.

Manchester City

Eriksson leading the Manchaster City side out at Old Trafford

In July 2007, virtually a year to the day that he left the England job, Eriksson was confirmed as the new manager of Manchester City after signing a three-year contract (Manchester City's first manager from outside of the UK).[12] His first signing was Italian striker Rolando Bianchi from Reggina for £8.8 million. Bianchi was soon joined at the club by Swiss Under-21 international Gelson Fernandes from Sion, Brazilian midfielder Geovanni from Cruzeiro, and Bulgarian winger Martin Petrov from Atlético Madrid. He also signed Croat Vedran Ćorluka from Dinamo Zagreb, Spaniard Javier Garrido from Real Sociedad and Brazilian Elano from Shakhtar Donetsk. He was successful in his first match, defeating West Ham United 2-0 at Upton Park. During Manchester City's next game, they scored their first home goal in 288 days (since 1 January 2007), to take all three points from a newly promoted Derby County.

On 19 August, Manchester City won the first Manchester derby under Eriksson with a 1-0 win over league champions Manchester United with a goal from one of Sven's summer signings, Geovanni, taking City to the top of the Premier League, with 9 points and having conceded no goals. Manchester City lost their first match on 25 August, a 1-0 loss to Arsenal. On 10 February 2008, Eriksson's Manchester City once again beat Manchester United, this time at Old Trafford, beating them 2-1.

Guiding Manchester City to second place in the Premier League, Eriksson earned himself the Premier League's Manager of the Month award for August. During September 2007, City enjoyed a further two wins at home, whilst winning one point in two matches playing away from home. Meanwhile, Eriksson led the club to the fourth round of the Carling Cup, beating Norwich City at Eastlands by 1-0.

In the last game of the season, Manchester City suffered an 8–1 loss to Middlesbrough F.C.; the biggest defeat of Eriksson's career[13], leaving Manchester City in 9th place in the league, one place away from the UEFA Cup 2008–09 qualifying positions. Manchester City subsequently qualified through the extra place awarded to the Premier League for finishing as the highest placed team (who hadn't already qualified for a European competition) in the UEFA Fair Play League for 2007–08.

Eriksson became the first Manchester City manager since 1969-70 to win both league derby games against Manchester United and also achieved the joint highest Premier League point total in the club's history.

Mexico national football team

On 2 June 2008, Manchester City confirmed by club statement that they had parted company with Eriksson by "mutual consent", with Eriksson still having two years left on his contract.[14] He was subsequently appointed as manager of Mexico a day later,[15] though he did not formally start the role until after Mexico's World Cup qualifier against Belize on 21 June.[16]

On 20 August 2008, he debuted as manager of the Mexican National team in a CONCACAF world cup qualifier versus Honduras. Mexico went on to win 2-1. On the next matches some results were poor, as Mexico tied with Canada and lost to Jamaica and Honduras.

On 11 February 2009, Eriksson was put under further pressure as his side lost 2-0 to the United States. Calls for him to quit or be sacked were heard from the fans while the English club Portsmouth were rumoured to be interested in making him their new manager. This link was strengthened by reports of members from the Portsmouth board flying to Mexico City to discuss contract offers with Eriksson and a possible compensation settlement with the Federación Mexicana de Fútbol Asociación. In early March, Eriksson continued to deny that he would leave Mexico and return to manage Portsmouth, insisting that he would remain and help Mexico qualify for the World Cup.[17] After a 3-1 World Cup Qualifying loss at Honduras, Eriksson was removed as national team coach. Eriksson had only won one of his last seven non-friendly games as manager.[18]

Notts County

Eriksson was Director of Football at English League Two team Notts County from July 2009 to February 2010, attracted by a Middle East consortium which claimed to seek to take the club to the top of the Premiership. On 21 July 2009, sources disclosed that Eriksson was in talks with Notts County, following that club's takeover by Middle East consortium Munto Finance[19]. On 22 July the deal was finalised, with Sven getting a reported, but not confirmed, £2m a year deal. It is believed his contract was based on the future success of the club with a large percentage share holding making up his contract. Eriksson later said that he was attracted by the consortium's plans to take the world's oldest league club to the top of the Premiership, and believed that they had the finance and commitment to do that. Large-scale investment in new facilities was promised, and Sol Campbell and Kasper Schmeichel joined the club from Premiership teams. Campbell, however, played only one game. The consortium attempted to involve Eriksson in the running of the North Korean team, taking him to Pyongyang in October 2009; this came to nothing, with Eriksson later saying that his efforts were wasted as he was then unable to contact anyone on the North Korean side. In November 2009 the club's large debts, including an unpaid tax bill, emerged.[20] On 11 February 2010, Eriksson resigned as director of football following the club's takeover by former Lincoln City chairman Ray Trew.[21] Eriksson waived a multi-million payoff in order to assist the takeover; Trew described Eriksson as an "absolute gentleman".[20]

Côte d'Ivoire national team

He is selected to lead the Côte d'Ivoire national team during the 2010 World Cup.[22]. On 28 March 2010 he was announced manager of Côte d'Ivoire national football team.[23]

Club managerial honours

Managerial statistics

Team Nat From To Record
G W D L %
Degerfors Sweden 1977 1978 — — — — —
Göteborg[24] Sweden 1979 1982 100 51 32 17 051.00
Benfica Portugal 1982 1984 60 46 11 3 076.67
Roma Italy 1984 1987 90 41 26 23 045.56
Fiorentina Italy 1987 1989 64 21 20 23 032.81
Benfica Portugal 1989 1992 106 72 26 8 067.92
Sampdoria Italy 1992 1997 170 71 52 47 041.76
Lazio Italy 1997 2001 136 78 32 26 057.35
England[25] England 2001 July 2006 67 40 17 10 059.70
Manchester City England July 2007 June 2008 45 19 11 15 042.22
Mexico Mexico June 2008 April 2009 13 6 1 6 046.15
Côte d'Ivoire Ivory Coast March 2010 Present 0 0 0 0 !—
Total 851 445 228 178 052.29

See also

References

  1. ^ "The Tord Way". When Saturday Comes. Retrieved 2009-06-29.
  2. ^ "Eriksson named as Man City boss". BBC Sport. 2007-07-06. Retrieved 2007-07-06.
  3. ^ "Football: Svenmania at the City (The Sun Online)".
  4. ^ "Sven sacked as Mexico boss". Sky Sports. 2009-04-02. Retrieved 2 April 2009.
  5. ^ "Sven Goran Eriksson factfile". CNN. Retrieved 5 August 2007.
  6. ^ "Sven Goran Eriksson". ESPN. Retrieved 5 August 2007.
  7. ^ Lovejoy, Joe (2004). Sven: The Final Reckoning. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-00-714069-X.p78
  8. ^ Drown 'n out, The Sun. Retrieved on 18 February 2008.
  9. ^ "Eriksson to quit after world cup". BBC sport. 23 January 2006. Retrieved 2007-07-07.
  10. ^ ""England stumble on"". BBC sport. 15 June 2006. Retrieved 2007-07-07.
  11. ^ "England's Coaches/Managers by Points Percentage in Major Tournament Matches". England Football Online. Retrieved 2007-06-24.
  12. ^ "Eriksson named Man City manager". BBC Sport. 6 July 2007. Retrieved 2 June 2008.
  13. ^ "Middlesbrough 8-1 Man City". BBC Sport. 11 May 2008. Retrieved 2 June 2008.
  14. ^ "Eriksson's reign at Man City ends". BBC Sport. 2 June 2008. Retrieved 2 June 2008.
  15. ^ "Sven takes on Mexico post". Sky Sports. 2008-06-03. Retrieved 2008-06-03.
  16. ^ "Sven-Goran Eriksson named Mexico's coach". LA Times. 2008-06-04. Retrieved 2008-06-05.
  17. ^ http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11661_5001673,00.html
  18. ^ http://www.usatoday.com/sports/soccer/2009-04-02-2565202386_x.htm
  19. ^ Ex-England-Coach Eriksson zu Viertligist Notts County
  20. ^ a b Scott, Matt (2010-02-12). "Sven-Goran Eriksson: How I was conned at Notts County". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2010-02-13.
  21. ^ "Sven-Goran Eriksson leaves after Notts County takeover". BBC Sport. 2010-02-11. Retrieved 2010-02-11.
  22. ^ Swedish TV says that L'Equipe newspaper writes this. See also [1]
  23. ^ "Sven-Goran Eriksson raring to go as Ivory Coast coach". BBC Sport. BBC. 2010-03-29. Retrieved 2010-03-29.
  24. ^ From Swedish Wikipedia, Allsvenskan only. Some Svenska Cupen and other games are not included in this figure.
  25. ^ "England Hall of Fame". FA.com. Retrieved 2007-05-17.
Awards and achievements
Preceded by UEFA Cup Winning Coach
1981-82 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Cup of Portugal Winning Coach
1982-83 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Portuguese SuperCup Winning Coach
1989-90 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Cup Winners' Cup Winning Coach
1998-99 		Succeeded by
N/A

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