2024-09-14 07:49:17
England’s former national coach Sven-Göran Eriksson was buried on Friday. His last column was published beforehand. In it, the Swede also writes about Didi Hamann.
On Friday, former England national coach (2001 to 2006) Sven-Göran Eriksson was buried in his home country of Sweden. He died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 76. Football icons such as David Beckham and Roy Hodgson also attended his farewell ceremony. Shortly before the ceremony, Eriksson’s last column appeared in the “Daily Telegraph”.
In this column, the former coach of Manchester City (2007 to 2008) also mentions Didi Hamann. The former midfielder and current TV expert was under contract with the Premier League club from 2006 to 2009. Eriksson calls the 51-year-old “Kaiser” in his column and tells an earlier anecdote about himself and Hamann.
He wrote right at the start: “Life is meant to be celebrated. I’ve always had that attitude. How can I best illustrate that? Well, you may have heard the story one of my former players, Didi Hamann, told about me when I was released by Manchester City in 2008.”
According to the report, Hamann was sitting by the swimming pool on a post-season tour in Thailand and did not know that Eriksson and his assistant Tord Grip had been fired. However, they wanted to celebrate what they described as a good season and, according to the Swede, bought “a few bottles of champagne”.
Eriksson continued: “I saw Didi at the pool and invited him for a drink. He said to me: ‘What are we celebrating, boss?’ My answer was the same then as it is today: ‘We’re celebrating life, Kaiser,’ I said. We sat on our sun loungers by the pool and had a drink. Celebrating life. That has always been my attitude – no matter what comes your way.”
Eriksson also explained in his column that he always tried to “live every day with a smile on your face. You have to stay positive.”