Former-England football boss Sven-Goran Eriksson today joined Good Morning Britain live from his home in Bjorkefors, Sweden to discuss his recent pancreatic cancer diagnosis and revealed that he would still accept a managerial role with his ‘dream’ club Liverpool, after fans call for him to be given the opportunity.
Opening the interview with Ed Balls and Susanna Reid this morning, Sven said: “I’m ok considering the situation, I’m fine.”
Discussing his shock cancer diagnosis, Sven explained: “I was at home and everything was normal, I had no pain. Nothing. So I fell down, fainted and they took me to hospital and they did a lot of examinations and they said I had four small strokes and they wondered why and then they took an X-Ray of the whole body and it came out that I have cancer in the pancreas. Well, what they said is we can’t operate on it but we can try to run it slower than it normally does so that’s what I’m doing now.”
On how he’s coping with the news, Sven continued: “Of course, you get the prognosis and that was not good of course, it came from nowhere. It came as a shock for me and my children, the whole family, but after a while, you have to work with [it] and not think about it 24 hours a day.
“Don’t sit at home and do nothing, live your life as normal as possible, as long as you can, that’s what I’m doing really. I refuse to give up, I want to live everyday, a normal life. I can’t run a marathon no, but I can go to the gym, I can do exercise as I always did in my life. I can have people here in my house, visitors in my house… Everything is normal more or less.”
Sven admits he’s ‘determined to live in the moment’ and explained: “I want to live normally, the aim in my life is to wake up and feel ok and most of the morning I feel ok so that’s, it’s not good but it’s as good as it can be.”
Following his admission that managing Liverpool was a ‘lifelong dream’ – Susanna asked Sven if he was aware of fans calling for the decorated manager to be given the role for the Legends charity match at home in March, against Ajax.
Sven replied: “I didn’t know that, I knew that they have a charity game in March I think it is and my son… I’m invited to see that game and that would be great because there will be a lot of great footballers there but I should be their manager? No, I’ve never heard that.”
Responding to whether he’d accept the offer, Sven said: “I would accept of course! That’s always been my dream but like a dream, I’m not complaining, I’ve had a lot of good football teams – national teams and the clubs so I’m happy.”
Susanna also revealed to the football boss: “Robbie Fowler has said the call has gone in!” Sven was also asked if he had given any advice to his successors managing England on how to succeed in the role and said: “Well Southgate doesn’t need any advice at all, he’s doing a great job and I think he might win the World Cup. The team is very, very strong but you know, stressful yes of course.
“You need to win as many games as possible, it’s not accepted to lose as the coach of England, but everyday I was very very proud to have that job and I had it for five and a half years so I’m a lucky man for sure because the England job is probably the biggest job you can have as a manager.”
Discussing his time as manager, he said: “No regrets but if I look back on it, the World Cup in Germany, we should have done better, we should have reached semi-finals, final, we could have won it because at that time, I couldn’t see any teams stronger than England but we lost, penalties again… unfortunately, but we should have done better, that’s it.”
On how he’s now spending his days, Sven said: “I have a lot of friends here in Sweden of course, they come and visit me, I go out for coffee with them, lunch with them and things like that so I try to be normal. I’m travelling a little bit less than I was before but I’m still travelling, I hope to come to England maybe to see England vs. Brazil I think it is in March. That could be a game in the world cup, a final in the world cup! But they have a friendly in March.
Adding: “I’m not complaining, I refuse to sit down, cry and feel sorry about myself.” Sven also discussed if there was anything else he wished he’d done in his life so far, telling Ed and Susanna: “Yeah but when you’re in a situation such as I am, I’m not going to make journey’s a lot and travel a lot because I’ve seen a lot and I’ve been in many, many nice places. I think my big aim is to wake up in the morning and feel well, that’s enough for me and I’m very happy, every day I can do that. Some travelling I can do and I want to go to England in March to see that game, that’s a great game.”
Good Morning Britain weekdays from 6am on ITV1 & ITVX
