Swede to coach English soccer team

The English football team is to have a Swedish coach, the 52-year-old Sven Goran Eriksson, who also coaches Italian club Lazio.

This is the first time in the history of English football that the national side will have a foreign coach.

The Football Association decided to go in for a foreign coach after its last two choices, Englishmen Glenn Hoddle and Kevin Keegan, both didn't prove to be too successful at their jobs.

Eriksson, on the other hand has had a widely successful career, having won championships in Sweden, Portugal and Italy. In Sweden he coached IFK Gothenburg, with whom he won the Swedish Cup thrice.

Portugal was where he coached Benfica, where in his first season he won the Potuguese title but lost the UEFA Cup final.

Lazio, last year in the Champions' League, proved that they were a team to reckon with. This was due in no small measure to Eriksson who has the ability to inspire the players to give of their very best on the field.

Eriksson will bring to the English team years of experience and hopefully a new dawn for the birthplace of soccer. He will take over the coaching responsibility from July 1, 2001, which means that for the interim the post will probably be held by Peter Taylor, who has been appointed caretaker coach for the friendly against Italy at Turin on November 15.

Photograph: Allsport