Football: Former Elephants coach dies

Sven Goran Eriksson, former coach of the Elephants of Côte d’Ivoire, died on Monday at the age of 76.

The Swedish coach had been suffering from terminal pancreatic cancer and died at his home in Sweden.

Throughout his long career, Sven-Goran Eriksson was the first foreign coach to lead the England team between 2001 and 2006.

The man was manager of Lazio in Rome and the Côte d’Ivoire team for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. The experience was tinged with failure, as Didier Drogba’s golden generation of Elephants failed to progress beyond the first round of the competition. As did the Three Lions of David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Steven Gerrard and Michael Owen, who were twice eliminated on penalties by Portugal in the quarter-finals of Euro 2004 and the 2006 World Cup.

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A few days ago, the renowned coach dropped a touching message: ‘I’ve had a good life. Perhaps too good. (…) I think we’re all afraid of the day we die, but life is also death. I hope that at the end, people will say, yes, he was a good man, but not everyone will say that’. He managed to realise ‘the dream of his life’ by coaching English club Liverpool in a charity match against Ajax Amsterdam.

Sven Goran Eriksson suspected he was doomed by cancer. Liverpool’s unassuming fan received a magnificent tribute at Anfield last March. Under Jürgen Klopp’s blessing, Eriksson led the Reds in a gala match against Ajax Amsterdam.