Thursday morning brought the shocking news that former England manager, Sven Goran Eriksson, has terminal cancer.
Sky News were one of the first outlets to report the story, with the 75-year-old quoted as telling a Swedish radio station with he has “at best a year to live.”
Eriksson will forever be synonymous with England’s ‘Golden Generation,’ when there likes of David Beckham, Steven Gerrard and Michael Owen were in their pomp.
His chequered private life garnered almost as many headlines as his managerial career, though Eriksson will always be remembered for the latter.
From 1977 when in charge of Degerfors IF, right through to his last managerial job in charge of the Philippines, he was never out of work for long.
He had stints at Benfica, Roma, Lazio, Man City, Leicester City and Sampdoria, as well as Gothenburg, Shanghai SIPG, Shenzen and Guangzhou, not to mention the national teams of Mexico and Ivory Coast.
Well travelled and educated in the beautiful game, Eriksson’s influence can truly be seen in various corners of the world.
It’s a legacy that will endure long after he has passed, and the man himself wasn’t too melancholy about his impending death.
“Everyone understands that I have an illness that is not good,” he told P1, quoted by Sky News.
“Everyone guesses it’s cancer and it is. But I have to fight as long as I can. Maybe at best a year, at worst a little less, or at best maybe even longer. You can’t be absolutely sure. It is better not to think about it.”