Eriksson in line to be Mexico’s new coach
Sven-Goran Eriksson, the Swede who coached England to consecutive quarterfinal appearances at the 2002 and 2006 World Cups, appears poised to become Mexico’s next national soccer coach.
Although Eriksson’s London-based agent deniedTuesday that any contract had been signed or that any talks had taken place, the president of Mexico’s soccer federation said the 60-year-old Eriksson would be named Hugo Sanchez’s successor.
“We only seriously considered [Portugal Coach Luiz Felipe] Scolari and Eriksson,” Justino Compean told a Mexico City radio station from Australia, where he is attending the FIFA meetings in Sydney. “We have sorted out the details with Eriksson, and we are about to confirm him” as coach.
Compean said the announcement probably would be made Monday, two days before Mexico plays Argentina in a match in San Diego. The team currently is in the charge of interim Coach Jesus “Chucho” Ramirez, who took over when Sanchez was fired March 31.
But Eriksson’s England-based agent, Athole Still, called it all “hot air” and said no negotiations had taken place with his client. “Mr. Eriksson is a contracted employee of Manchester City Football Club,” Still said. That contradicted something Mexico-based agent Juan Carlos Padilla had said Sunday.
“If the Mexican federation decides to take him on,” Padilla said, “he will be their coach, and the Mexican national team will be his top choice. It’s a contract for the cycle up to the next World Cup [in South Africa in 2010], and after that we’ll see what happens. But for the moment it’s a two-year contract.”
Eriksson, who stepped down as England’s coach after the 2006 World Cup, took charge of Manchester City in July 2007 and led the team to ninth place in the English Premier League in the season that just ended. After a strong start, the team failed to keep up with the league’s wealthier and more powerful clubs and became a middle-of-the-pack team, much to the dismay of its owner, former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
Manchester City has been on a tour of Asia, and Eriksson has not commented on his future.
Eriksson’s career has been a successful one, and he had won numerous championships and cups in Sweden, Portugal and Italy before becoming England’s first foreign -- and highest-paid -- coach in 2001. He had charge of England for five years, compiling a 40-10-17 record, reaching the quarterfinals of the 2004 European Championships, and raising the team from 17th place in the FIFA world rankings to fifth.
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