“He never raised the pitch of his voice”: Almeida’s quote in his biography of Erikson

World football mourns, as the Sven Goran Eriksson “passed away” at the age of 76 after his unequal battle with cancer.

The Swedish coach achieved great success in his career, leaving his mark on Italian football. With her Lazio won the Scudetto in the 1990/00 season – the last of the Romans to this day – having on the roster Matias Almeidawhich had a decisive contribution to the title.

Her coach AEK in his biography, published in Greece in a translation by Vassilis Tembelis, he referred to Erikson and his work, speaking of a man with eerie calm who never raised his voice:

“The Swede exuded an eerie calmness and inner peace. He had 24 international players on the roster and he had them all happy because we were playing in two or three different competitions. He never raised his voice, worked the ball in drills and stopped to correct mistakes. He didn’t like possession football with a lot of passing, his system was simple. The keeper would pass it to Mihajlovic and the Serb with a long ball would try to find Vieri, Boksic or Salas, depending on the season, and we midfielders would claim the second pass or the rebound.

Sometimes, when we got the rebound, we moved the ball around a bit, but he didn’t like us to build the attacks with passes from the back at all. That’s how he won the scudetto and entered the history of the club. He is very much loved by the people“, said Almeida in his book on Erikson.