Sven-Goran Eriksson has 'about a year' to live after confirming he has cancer

Former England and Manchester City manager said diagnosis was 'best case' scenario

Sven-Goran Eriksson stood down from his most recent role as sporting director at Swedish club Karlstad 11 months ago due to health issues. Getty

Former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson told a Swedish radio station he has been diagnosed with terminal cancer and said he has about one year to live.

Speculation about Eriksson's health, who was manager of England for five years from 2001 to 2006 and has managed a host of top European clubs, has heightened in recent months.

He stood down from his most recent role as sporting director at Swedish club Karlstad 11 months ago due to health issues.

The 75-year-old told Swedish Radio P1: “Everyone can see that I have a disease that’s not good, and everyone supposes that it’s cancer, and it is. But I have to fight it as long as possible.

“I know that in the best case it’s about a year, in the worst case even less. Or in the best case I suppose even longer. I don’t think the doctors I have can be totally sure, they can’t put a day on it.

“It’s better not to think about it. You have to trick your brain. I could go around thinking about that all the time and sit at home and be miserable and think I’m unlucky and so on.

“It’s easy to end up in that position. But no, see the positive sides of things and don’t bury yourself in setbacks, because this is the biggest setback of them all, of course.”

The former Lazio and Benfica coach told the station that he had suddenly collapsed while going for a 5km run.

After seeing his doctors, it turned out that Eriksson had suffered a stroke and also had cancer.

Eriksson presided over England's supposed "golden generation" of players including David Beckham, Steven Gerrard, Paul Scholes and Frank Lampard, but the Three Lions persistently fell short at major tournaments.

Under Eriksson, they exited at the quarter-final stages of the 2002 and 2006 World Cups as well as Euro 2004.

He also coached the national teams of Mexico, Ivory Coast and the Philippines.

Eriksson managed Manchester City during the 2007/08 season, finishing ninth in the Premier League, before parting ways with the club in June 2008 just weeks before the Abu Dhabi-backed City Football Group takeover.

He made his name in European football by guiding unfancied Swedish side IFK Goteborg to Uefa Cup success in 1982 but it was in Italy where he established his coaching credentials, guiding Lazio to a league-and-cup double in 2000 a year after winning the European Cup Winners' Cup.

He was also briefly technical director at UAE top-flight club Al Nasr but left his post in June 2013 only four months into an 18-month contract.