Sven-Goran Eriksson was known for his cool and collected manner. In fact, he was often criticised for his perceived lack of passion.
The Swedish manager once told his England players: “When you lose your head you lose your tactics, your shape, everything.”
Frank Lampard had also commented on how Eriksson was “quite a composed character on the bench”, saying you don’t have to be a “screamer or shouter” in modern football.
But there was one time Eriksson memorably lost his cool.
Ahead of the 2006 World Cup in Germany, there was a bust-up between the England manager and Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson.
Sir Alex had learned Eriksson was planning to play Wayne Rooney, despite the player’s broken metatarsal.
FA vice-chairman David Dein later recalled in his book: “The only time I ever saw Sven annoyed was when Sir Alex Ferguson called him at our World Cup base in 2006.
“Fergie was furious that Wayne Rooney was going to play at the World Cup, with England gambling on his recovery from a broken metatarsal. ‘You’re finished,’ he screamed.
“Sven lost it. ‘F*** off,’ he said. ‘Alex, I will pick Rooney. Have a nice holiday. Ciao. Bye.”
Eriksson would go on to manage United’s rivals Manchester City.
Eriksson’s England era became a celebrity circus – but he wanted to enjoy life and was never bitter
Sven-Goran Eriksson doubted so much whether England could ever have a foreign manager that an initial approach was considered a joke.
Intrigued eventually by the ground-breaking opportunity, rather than being deterred by the indignation, the Swede would launch the Three Lions into five of the most frenzied years in their history.
Everything belied his suave demeanour – from allowing a celebrity culture to consume the team to being an unlikely headline-making lothario himself and, even, showing passion while delivering results for his adopted country.
It was a blessing and burden to inherit a Golden Generation of talent of David Beckham, Wayne Rooney and co – captivating the country with dazzling one-off displays but unable to deliver when it mattered most under the weight of expectation and pressure.
It is the failure to overcome the constant quarter-final barrier and lift a trophy that shaped Eriksson’s England legacy where football too often seemed secondary.
Eriksson tried to ‘live normally’ after cancer diagnosis
The Swedish football manager had spoken of how he tried to keep a positive outlook after his devastating terminal cancer diagnosis.
He told Good Morning Britain in January he was trying to live the rest of his life “as normal as possible”.
“You have to work with it [the diagnosis], and don’t think about it 24 hours a day and don’t sit at home and do nothing, live your life as normal as possible as long as you can,” he said.
“I refuse to give up, I want to live every day a normal life. I can’t run a marathon, but I can go to the gym, I can do exercise as I always did, I can have visitors here in the house. I want to live normally.”
He said he refused to “sit down crying” and “feeling sorry for myself”.
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