By Samuel A. March 23, 2024
Liverpool Football Club fulfilled Sven Goran Eriksson’s lifelong dream to manage Liverpool at Anfield as he took charge of the club for a charity legends game against Ajax on an emotional day in Merseyside.
The former England manager, who is a boyhood Liverpool fan, revealed his terminal cancer diagnosis in January, saying he has a year or less to live. Eriksson was invited by Liverpool to take charge of their legends side for this game alongside a coaching staff of Ian Rush, John Aldridge and John Barnes, and was given a wholesome standing ovation by the Anfield crowd as he came out of the tunnel.
The charity match between Liverpool Legends and Ajax Legends was to raise money for the LFC Foundation and Forever Reds. Fernando Torres, who started up front with Gerrard for Liverpool, rounded off a memorable afternoon by scoring the fourth goal in a 4-2 comeback win from being 2-0 down for the Liverpool Legends. Derk Boerrigter and Kiki Musampa gave the Ajax Legends a comfortable lead at the break but Liverpool scored three times in front of the Kop End, thanks to goals from Gregory Vignal, Djibril Cisse and Nabil El Zhar and Torres.
Speaking in his post-match press conference Eikksson described the event as “a beautiful day”. “A memory for life,” he said after the game. “Everybody was the winner today. It was beautiful, absolutely incredible. Everything from You’ll Never Walk Alone to the rest of the match. I think we were the better team even in the first half. You always worry that you lose, but it was a very good first half, an extremely good second half. But the big winners were all of us.”
Meanwhile, Liverpool captain for the day Gerrard paid tribute to Eriksson, and even said the former England manager as “still got the magic” after inspiring a second half comeback. “He changed everything at half time, he knew we had no width in the first half and we were trying to fit through the middle,” Gerrard said. “He made loads of changes at half time and gave us more width. He’s still got it, he’s still got the magic. He made the difference. He was like Rafa at half time, moving us about, changing the system, giving us more width and we got there in the end. The hairdryer treatment. Sven being here today was very special, as soon as I knew he was going to be the gaffer today, I couldn’t wait to come and play with him one last time.”
