Yesterday, 14 May, marked the 20th anniversary of Eriksson's mighty Lazio side winning Serie A. They won the league and cup double that season.
The 72-year-old told Italian station Radio Radio that Serie A was the pinnacle of football at the time, and he turned down a Barcelona option in favour of a move to Italy.
“Serie A in the 1980s and 90s was the best in the world, the most difficult, the most fascinating, everything," Eriksson said.
"I had an offer from Barcelona at the same time as when I first came to Italy, but I said no because I wanted to work in Serie A.”
Eriksson managed Roma, Fiorentina and Sampdoria in Serie A before his legendary Lazio spell.
The Swede, who also coached the England national team and Manchester City in the Premier League, has no doubt that Lazio was his best ever side and brought him the most joy.
"I have remained a Lazio fan and that was the strongest team I ever coached,” he said. “It was perhaps one of the best teams in the world at that moment.
"We won so much in three-and-a-half years, we could probably have won even more, but it was without doubt my happiest professional experience.”
He coached Socceroos great Paul Okon at the Biancocelesti, as well as some of the biggest names in world football - Christian Vieri, Roberto Mancini, Pavel Nedved, Diego Simeone, Juan Sebastian Veron, Alessandro Nesta, Marcelo Salas and Sinisa Mihajlovic among others.
He left after winning eight trophies with Lazio to take charge of England for six years.
“A few times I thought to myself it might’ve been better to stay at Lazio and in Italy. But when an offer from the England team comes along, that’s once in a lifetime.
"I thought that I couldn’t say no and would have regretted it for the rest of my life if I had turned it down.
“Maybe I made a mistake, maybe not, who knows… it is what it is and we can’t change it now.
