Nancy Dell'Olio tells most painful thing Sven ever did that was 'worse than him cheating'
Former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson, who dated Italian socialite Nancy Dell'Olio for the best part of a decade, is the subject of a new Amazon Prime documentary
Sven-Goran Eriksson's ex Nancy Dell'Olio says a traumatic financial saga between the pair was "much worse" to handle than him cheating on her.
The terminally-ill former England boss, who revealed he'd been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer earlier this year, is approaching the end of his life, having claimed he had, at best, "one year" to live back in January. His life is the subject of a new Amazon Prime documentary, titled 'Sven', which covers both his career in football, as well as his highly-publicised private life.
The 76-year-old spent five years as Three Lions boss (2001-2006), and in that period made headlines regarding infamous affairs. His partner at the time, Dell'Olio, stuck with him in spite of his infidelity. He had flings with TV presenter Ulrika Jonsson and FA secretary Faria Alam, but Dell'Olio claimed the worst thing Eriksson ever did to her actually happened after their relationship had ended.
In 2010, the Swede sued his financial advisor, Samir Khan, whom he accused of mismanaging and embezzling large sums of money from him over several years, resulting in the loss of £10m of Eriksson's personal fortune. The saga left the Eriksson family in a precarious financial position, and the former football manager was forced to sell many of his assets as a result.
"He lost over £10m... that was the last time I saw Sven," Dell'Olio, 62, told Amazon Prime. "He was very fragile. He looked like another person.
"We ended it not in the way I wanted it of course. This financial matter was much worse than his infidelity. The house, the money, I got nothing."
Eriksson explained that Khan, who took control of his financial affairs in 2007, would come to him every now and then and give him papers to sign, which he did without reading. In 2009, he asked accountancy firm Deloitte to run checks on Khan after becoming concerned over the arrangements, and a year later his worst fears were confirmed.
"One day I phoned the bank and asked them to do a transfer, and they said you don't have any cash," Eriksson explained. "My family, they were destroyed."
Eriksson took Khan, who continuously denied accusations of malpractice, to court with the expressed intention of sending him to jail. He eventually won the case, though only managed to get a small chunk of the money back that he'd lost. Despite that, Eriksson ultimately accepted an apology from Khan, and subsequently abandoned his attempt to have him sent to prison.
Eriksson and Dell'Olio, a high-profile Italian lawyer, met in 1998 and dated for around a decade. They moved to England in 2001 when Sven was hired as England manager. They eventually split up in 2007.
After becoming England's first ever foreign manager, Eriksson led the team to three major tournaments, losing at the quarter-final stage in each of them (2002 World Cup, 2004 Euros and 2006 World Cup). Elsewhere, he had stints with the likes of Manchester City and Leicester City, as well as a brief, ill-fated spell as Notts County's director of football.
He also managed in his native Sweden, Portugal and Italy, and won 17 trophies across his managerial career, including five league titles. Elsewhere, he coached in China, Mexico, the Ivory Coast and the Philippines, before retiring from the game in 2019.
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