Sven-Goran Eriksson’s ex-wife Anki has told how football destroyed their marriage because it became “more important’’ to him than his family.
She admits in a new interview about the end of their relationship: “All hell broke loose. It just wasn't good anymore.”
Tributes poured in from around the world for former soccer boss Sven after he died from cancer aged 76 back in August. Many hailed him as “one of the greatest managers’’ that had ever lived. But with just days to go before a bronze sculpture is due to be unveiled as a tribute to him in his native Sweden, it’s been revealed how his obsession with the sport cost him his marriage to his childhood sweetheart.
In a new Swedish TV documentary, his former wife Anki Eriksson Graves lifts the lid on why their relationship failed. The pair had met in high school in Åmål and got married in 1977. Sven had retired from playing soccer by then but was soon appointed manager of IFK Goteborg. He and Anki went on to have two children, Johan and Lina.
But cracks started to appear in the marriage as he was having to move around Europe when he landed football manager posts in Portugal and Italy. The documentary claims that when his daughter Lina was born in Karlstad, he was actually in Rome and managed to fly back briefly to see the baby before jetting back again.
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Instagram/davidbeckham)In later years, his increasing fame and popularity started to encroach on his private life much to the annoyance of his children. Lina, now 37, revealed: “It was unthinkable that we would go out shopping or take a walk with dad in Italy. It didn't work.
“People would come up and talk to him. It was never just me and dad. It just wasn't on the cards when we were growing up.”
Then Anki confessed that, after 18 years together, it became apparent that Svennis was spending more time focussing on his work than his loved ones. And when the children started to cry that they wanted to be “a normal family”, she realised that sport was taking more of a priority in her husband's life than they were.
She admitted: “The children and I were no longer happy with the life we were living. For the first time, the children had also started kicking back about it.
“We simply didn't have a family life. And then Johan said ‘When are we going to be a normal family again?’
“When I noticed that football was more important than us to Svennis, then I knew that our marriage was over.
“Then we had the conversation that I couldn't ever have imagined having – I had to move out for the rest of my life. All hell broke loose. It just wasn't good anymore.”
In interviews about his marriage before he died, Svennis admitted that his love for soccer had taken over his life.
He said: “Looking back, I have been a big egoist when it comes to football. Because it has meant... Yes, children mean a lot. Wife means a lot. And so on. And football. I must have been crazy. But to change jobs and do something else was completely unthinkable for me.
“It was probably my fault. Or maybe it was football's fault. The price is still very high to pay for a divorce. It's not something I wish even on my worst enemy.”
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