The funeral of Sven-Goran Eriksson, the first foreigner to manage England’s national football team, was held on Friday in the small Swedish town of Torsby where he grew up before embarking on a career that would span many decades, countries and trophies.

A soft-spoken but determined coach, Eriksson guided teams in Sweden, Portugal and Italy to major trophies in the 1980s and 1990s before taking on the England job in 2001, managing stars such as David Beckham, with whom he formed a close bond.

Eriksson announced in January that he was terminally ill with pancreatic cancer and spent much of the ensuing months reconnecting with many of the places and people central to his career before he died on August 26.

The funeral in Torsby — a rural town of fewer than 5,000 people, near Sweden’s border with Norway — was attended by several hundred people inside the church, including Beckham.

Sven-Goran Eriksson, who died on August 26

Hundreds more followed the service on a big screen set up outside, local police said, and the funeral was given blanket coverage by Swedish media.

After the one-hour service, the coffin was led in procession to a nearby community centre while a brass band played music, including You’ll Never Walk Alone, the anthem of English Premier League club Liverpool, whom Eriksson supported and coached in a legends game in March.

Tributes flowed in for Svennis, as Eriksson was fondly known in his native Sweden, from Prime Ministers, clubs and former players while England and Sweden national teams, among others, played with black armbands during the recent international break.

“Svennis was a true football gentleman,” Fifa secretary-general Mattias Grafstrom said on X. “He coached as he lived his life, and he will be sorely missed.”

Eriksson led England to the 2002 and 2006 World Cup quarter-finals, and to the 2004 European Championship, managing a golden generation of players that besides Beckham boasted stars such as Frank Lampard, Wayne Rooney and Steven Gerrard.

He began building his international reputation when he guided Swedish club IFK Gothenburg to the Uefa Cup title in 1982 and went on to win silverware as coach of Portugal’s Benfica and Italian clubs AS Roma, Lazio and Sampdoria.

Unable to end England’s trophy drought, he left in 2006, going on to coach Manchester City and Leicester City as well as Mexico and Ivory Coast and clubs in China and the Philippines.

Curt Agren, watching the funeral on the screen outside the church wearing an IFK jersey, reflected on Eriksson’s importance for the club. “He is the greatest we’ve had in the whole world,” he told a local news agency.