On This Day – 12th January
Sven-Goran Eriksson became the first foreign England manager on this day back in 2001.
The Swede had been in charge of Italian side Lazio, but resigned to take over the biggest job in English football. Other names such as Terry Venables, Bobby Robson, Alan Curbishley and even John Gregory were named by bookies as possibles to take over from Kevin Keegan, but it was the Swede who landed the role.
In the five years that Eriksson presided over the England national team, he made both the front and back pages of the newspapers. His affair with television presenter and fellow Swede Ulrika Jonsson in April 2002 made the front cover of all the tabloids. This came two months before he was due to take charge of England at the World Cup in Japan and South Korea.
One of the greatest performances by any England side came in September 2001 under Eriksson’s leadership. His young England team faced Germany in Munich in a World Cup qualifier and won 5-1. The Swede could do no wrong in the fan’s eyes after this historic win.
The World Cup in 2002 was considered a success as Eriksson guided the team to the Quarter Final, before losing to Brazil thanks to a fluke free-kick from Ronaldinho.
England reached the Quarter Final again in both Euro 2004 and the World Cup in 2006, and both times they lost to Portugal.
The Swede was in charge of a squad with several players now referred to as ‘The Golden Generation’. Players like Michael Owen, Steven Gerrard, Paul Scholes, Frank Lampard and Rio Ferdinand were all at the peak of their footballing careers and at Eriksson’s disposal but he couldn’t deliver a major tournament that England fans so desperately crave.
The Football Association ranked Eriksson as the second most successful England manager of all-time, behind Sir Alf Ramsey. Not all that bad considering Ramsey was the only manager to win a major tournament for England.
Eriksson left the Football Association in 2006 and was replaced by Steve McLaren. A year later, he took over as manager of Manchester City and stayed there for two years before being sacked. He has since managed the Mexico, Ivory Coast and Philippines national teams, Leicester City, three teams in China and a bizarre seven month spell in charge of Notts County!
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