STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AFP) — Former Philippine Azkals head coach Sven-Goran Eriksson has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and has at best “maybe a year” to live, he said Thursday.
The 75-year-old Swede, who has managed a slew of high-profile teams and handled the Philippine national men’s football team from October 2018 to January 2019 announced in February last year that he was stepping back from public appearances “due to health issues.”
“Everyone understands that I have a disease that is not good. Everyone guesses that it’s cancer, and it is. But I have to put up a fight as long as I can,” Eriksson, who led England to World Cup quarterfinals in 2002 and 2006, told Sveriges Radio in an interview.
Eriksson said that in his doctor’s assessment he had “at best maybe a year (to live), at worst a little less.”
“You have to trick your brain,” he added.
“I could think about it all the time, and sit home and mope, feel unlucky and so on. I think it’s easy to end up like that,” he told the broadcaster.
“See the positive in things,” he said.
“Don’t bury yourself due to adversity. This is the biggest adversity, of course, but try to make something good out of it.”
Born 5 February 1948 in Sunne in western Sweden, Eriksson, who goes by “Svennis” to Swedes, found success as a football manager after retiring from a modest career as a defender.
In 1977, he became manager of Swedish club Degerfors IF. After leading the small club to success in lower divisions, he attracted the attention of bigger clubs.
