Former Sweden Coach Janne Andersson Reveals He Battled Cancer During 2018 FIFA World Cup

Former Sweden national football team coach Janne Andersson has revealed in an interview with SVT that he was fighting prostate cancer during the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, where he led Sweden to the quarter-finals.

Andersson noticed something was wrong in January 2018. “The national team doctor, Anders Wallentin, and I were out for one of our many morning walks, and I had to stop and pee a couple of times. Then he said, ‘We’ll have to look into that somehow,’” Andersson recalled on SVT’s talk show Carina Bergfeldt.

The ultrasound results arrived on the same day as a World Cup meeting with the national team — confirming that Andersson had prostate cancer. He underwent surgery after the championship in Russia.

Reflecting on the experience, Andersson said: “So many people have suffered worse things than I have done. But it is clear that when you are rolled into the operating room, and there are lights and machines and people all around you… then you are not cocky.”

The surgery went smoothly. “I was lying in the room when the doctor came in. The first thing they said was: ‘The shit is gone.’ And it felt so damn good,” Andersson added.

Janne Andersson served as Sweden’s national team coach from 2016 until 2023, leaving a legacy of leading the team to one of their most successful recent World Cup campaigns.