Sven-Göran Eriksson has described the opportunity to take charge of a Liverpool legends team in a charity match at Anfield on Saturday as a “dream” and revealed he held discussions about managing the club for real “many years ago”.
Eriksson will oversee Liverpool Legends against their counterparts from Ajax in a fixture aimed at raising money for the LFC Foundation, the club’s official charity, which delivers a variety of education programmes and supports projects aimed at tackling social issues, including youth employment, in the city.
A crowd of 59,655 is expected at what has become an annual event at Anfield and it is likely no one will be more excited to be there than Eriksson given his lifelong love of Liverpool, something the former England manager spoke about earlier this year after announcing he had about 12 months to live having been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. That led to Jürgen Klopp inviting Eriksson to spend a day as Liverpool manager, which in turn led to the club asking him to take charge of their legends side. It was an offer the 76-year-old Swede immediately and gleefully accepted.
“My father was a Liverpool fan, still is a Liverpool fan, so it [his love for the club] came from there,” said Eriksson. “It’s like a dream [taking charge of the legends team] and when they [the club] asked I thought it was a joke. But I said: ‘Of course I will come,’ and it is for charity which makes it even more lovely.”
Eriksson’s love of Liverpool is such that he wrote to the club in 1979, the year he took charge of IFK Göteborg, asking whether he could visit to watch training sessions under the then manager, Bob Paisley. “They agreed and I had the honour of going in the bootroom, which was fantastic,” he said. “All the training sessions were one- two-touch and the quality of play was incredible. It was about making it simple, that’s what the coaches told me, so I learned a lot.”
Eriksson faced Liverpool a few times during his managerial career and on one occasion, it turns out, came close to filling the Anfield hot seat. “There were discussions many years ago with a director, but it never happened,” was all he was prepared to say having opened this most tantalising of sliding doors.
The squad at Eriksson’s disposal on Saturday includes Sami Hyypiä, Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres. The man who led England to two World Cup quarter-finals during his five years in charge will also be assisted by three former Anfield greats – Ian Rush, John Aldridge and John Barnes – with Eriksson revealing he tried to sign Barnes for Roma in the mid-1980s.
“I was playing for Watford at the time and if you’ve ever been to Rome you know it’s a nice place to go, so yes, I was interested,” said Barnes, speaking alongside Eriksson at a press conference at Liverpool’s AXA Training Centre. “But at the time Italian clubs were only allowed to have two foreign players and I would have been Roma’s third foreign player so the transfer couldn’t happen. It was fate because otherwise I would never have joined Liverpool.”
Saturday’s game will be the third time Eriksson has taken charge of the home team at Anfield having overseen England wins over Finland and Paraguay in 2001 and 2002. Those were special occasions for Eriksson and it is clear that will also be the case upon his return almost exactly 23 years later.
“Anfield has maybe the best atmosphere in the world and part of that is the song when the players come out: You’ll Never Walk Alone,” he said. “It makes me [gestures to show his hair standing on end] and I’m looking forward to hearing it on Saturday. I’m very honoured and thankful to Liverpool that they give me this opportunity.”
The invite to be a prominent part of Saturday’s game at Anfield is not the only show of support Eriksson has received since his cancer diagnosis. A host of players he managed while in charge of England have reached out to him while a documentary celebrating his life has been put together with his involvement and is due to be broadcast later this year.
“I’m very lucky that all the things I did well are being celebrated while I’m still alive,” said a noticeably frail and understandably emotional Eriksson. “That’s not normal; usually you have to die before people tell you how good you were. I’m very happy they’re telling me while I’m still alive.”
