Top 50 Sven-Goran Eriksson Quotes

Didier Drogba is one of the best strikers in the world and he has showed that for many years now in the Premier League.

I would certainly never walk past a player in the corridor and not speak. Why should I do that? They have to play for you so of course I would speak to them. If you want them to do everything they can for you, then you have to treat them with respect.

When I was in Italy in the 90s, early 2000s, everybody wanted to go to Italy, all the players.

Personally, I’ve never liked confrontation.

Maybe I trust people too much.

Sooner or later, an African team will win the World Cup.

My private life was not very private in England.

If you travel around the world with David Beckham it’s total chaos everywhere you go.

Many clubs use sports psychologists today. But you have to work with a mental coach for months. You can’t just start when you are in the World Cup.

Gerrard is quiet; if he speaks people listen. If he has something to say, it’s important and clever. He’s a hard worker, disciplined.

Shanghai is a beautiful city, with theatres, shopping malls and restaurants that can rival anything in London.

Sometimes things go wrong in ‘football. You can lose games, own-goals, you can buy the wrong players. But you do it in the right spirit and you do it honestly. That is not how it went wrong at Notts County.

I had a lot of respect for Ferguson. How could you not? He had built so many great teams throughout the years and I appreciated that his teams always tried to play attacking, positive football.

To leave a job with a bad result is, I think, the worst thing in life to do. They will always remember you as a loser.

To be a manager, you have to perform always. You cannot live in history. It’s now and tomorrow that counts.

I like challenges, yes.

Without big money you can’t stay at the top. Maybe you can reach it for one year but you can’t if you don’t have money to buy important players.

If my style is typically Swedish, I don’t know. But I never shouted in all my life at players and I never did it at my children.

Sometimes I thought that maybe it would have been better to stay in Italy, to stay at Lazio.

If I am going to write a book, which I have done, I think we have to get it right – whatever has been written about me, about football, about my private life.

With England, every time we lost I was ‘not passionate.’ But I tried to say we won a lot of games when I was the same.

China, if they decide to do something, they do it. Not only in football but whatever it is. If you think about the billion population, there must be Messis or Ronaldos out there. There must be many talented football players out there.

From 1997 I was at Lazio for three and a half years and they were lucky times – a beautiful time. The chairman did almost everything I asked. We won seven trophies and were excellent.

I met Ulrika Jonsson on December 8, 2001, at some party hosted by the Daily Express, or maybe it was the Daily Star. The FA wanted me to travel around to various newspapers to be courteous and meet the editors. I visited the News Of The World too, and met a woman with big, red hair. I didn’t memorise her name.

The World Cup is the biggest party in football and it’s a party for the world, it’s incredible. It goes for a month and there is a huge amount of interest. It’s the greatest thing you can do and it’s beautiful.

You don’t give Capello advice. Capello’s a better talker than listener.

I think if you want be a big team and stay a big team, it costs money. Whether you like it or not, it doesn’t matter.

If you want to keep up with the changes, then you have to watch as much football as you can. Live is the best way but also on television. All the best teams: Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and now City. What are they doing? If possible, go and see them training. You can always learn.

If Rooney had been Italian, he would have been loved like Francesco Totti was at Roma.

My private life has absolutely nothing to do with my football.

Paul Scholes was at home on a cold February day away to Newcastle.

The Philippines is unfortunately not a football country – basketball is more popular.

How many Messis do you have in India if they had the chance to play?

Personally, I was oblivious to any financial hardships that my parents endured.

I had a contract with England, it was going to finish, and in football you can’t really wait until your contract runs out.

Football is beautiful and cruel.

My role as Manchester City manager was different to being manager of clubs in other countries. You share responsibility more in other European countries. You have the last word, though, in who to buy and who plays and things like that.

I’ve always been a Liverpool fan.

I don’t feel like I’m a failure for what I did with England. No I don’t feel like that.

Before England, I had never been sacked in my life.

I always thought I did a good job with England. But people at the time didn’t think so. They had had enough of the Swedish guy only making the quarter-finals.

By April 1998, the fortunes of Lazio were on the rise as they won their first trophy in 24 years. Meanwhile, my salary of around £400,000 basically tripled overnight when TV companies started paying for rights to broadcast games.

The big question for me is – are the players happy? Because in my mind it is all about building the right relationship with your players and creating the right atmosphere.

It’s always nice to see Brazil playing football.

I didn’t care: if I liked a woman and wanted to meet her, why shouldn’t I be able to?

You don’t criticise Totti in Italy. There might have been reasons to, sometimes, but you don’t touch him.

My private life, I prefer to have that private.

Yes, England lost to Iceland at Euro 2016 but you need to look at what Iceland had, as well as what England didn’t. Maybe Iceland were not technically strong but they looked very strong together and England were not the only ones surprised by them.

I always treated my players like men.

Sir Alex Ferguson must be very high up on the list of greatest managers ever. Then there is Fabio Capello, and people forget how much Giovanni Trapattoni achieved at Inter and especially Juventus.