SVEN-Goran Eriksson’s ex Nancy Dell’Olio insists he would want her at his funeral.
The Italian lawyer, 63, said in her first interview since the former England football manager’s death: “If they invite me, I will go. I would like to go.
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“But even if I do not go, I have arranged a Mass for him here in Italy. I will say my goodbye. I will pray for Sven.”
Sven’s death was announced on Sunday at the age of 76 after he battled pancreatic cancer.
Nancy and Sven split up some 15 years ago, but she told the Daily Mail: “I’m surprised by my reaction. It’s difficult not to cry.
“My phone has been inundated with messages but I couldn’t look at them at first. ”I just needed to be alone with my thoughts.
“It’s odd, the mix of emotions, but it has hit me that Sven is dead. It is over.”
She remembered a pancreatic cancer specialist telling her to get Sven to go to him in Boston, US, before she then called him to talk about it.
She said: “I told myself I would not be upset when I heard his voice.
”I would not cry, like I am doing now. I would not be dramatic. I would be factual.”
But she fell apart as soon as she heard his voice, adding: “I could tell that Sven was smiling on the other end of the phone.
I begged him, was begging him, to go to Boston. ”
“He said: ‘Come on, Nancy, it is OK.I have to trust my doctors.’
“It was a beautiful moment. I was crying, like I am crying now, but he tried to make it disappear, make it OK.”
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