LONDON — Former England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson and Barcelona’s Pep Guardiola joined in the tributes to Bobby Robson, who died of cancer on Friday, while tearful fans paid their own respects by placing flowers, scarves and shirts at Newcastle’s grounds.
The soccer world continued to mourn Robson’s death at age 76, and Eriksson and Guardiola described Saturday how they both learned much from the former coach of England and Barcelona.
Eriksson, who has recently joined League Two side Notts County as director of soccer, was England’s coach between 2001 and ’06 but first met Robson when the Swede was a virtual unknown.
“One of the kindest people I ever met,” Eriksson said. “He helped me a great deal when I was a young coach, and I visited him in Ipswich. He took me, an unknown coach from Sweden, down into the dugout and explained the tactics.
“The year after Ipswich won the UEFA Cup (in 1981), my team, Gothenburg, won it, and he came and presented the trophy to me. When I became coach of England, I called him many times, and he was always generous with his advice and helpful. It seems he was as friendly to everybody as he was to me. In fact, for me, he was the special one.”
Robson was England’s coach between 1982 and ’90 and led the team to the 1990 World Cup semifinal, when it lost a penalty shootout to West Germany. As a club coach, he won titles with Ipswich, PSV Eindhoven, FC Porto and Barcelona and lifted struggling Newcastle from last to three consecutive top-five finishes in the Premier League when he took over.
Guardiola was a Barcelona midfielder when Robson arrived at Camp Nou in 1996.
“It was a pleasure to know him, not only as a coach but also as a person. It was a marvelous experience,” he said. “It was a very difficult season, even though we won three trophies. Despite the problems of that year, he never lost his composure and always behaved like a gentleman.” Barcelona, which won the Spanish League, domestic cup and Champions League titles last season, called for a minute’s silence before Saturday’s game against the Los Angeles Galaxy at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. The European champion’s players also planned to wear black armbands for the game to mark Robson’s passing.
“We will always have good memories of him on a personal and professional level,” said Barcelona president Joan Laporta. “He came to the Nou Camp recently, and we had the pleasure of looking after him. He really was a charming man, a true gentleman. Nobody could have a bad word to say about him. He always spoke well of Barca and always had great affection for the club.”
Meanwhile, hundreds of Newcastle fans converged on St. James’ Park on Saturday to lay flowers, scarves and club shirts on the seats as a mark of respect, some of them in tears. Many also lined up in the rain to sign of a book of remembrance.
Robson’s last appearance at the grounds in Newcastle, the club he supported as a boy, came five days before his death.
Sitting in a wheelchair, he was there to watch a match staged to raise funds for his cancer research charity, the Bobby Robson Foundation. By November 2008, the fund had raised $1.67 million.
