Obituary
Posted on: Fri 03 Oct 2008
Everyone connected with Leicester City would like to express their sincere condolences to the family and friends of former player John Sjoberg, who sadly lost his battle against illness last night, aged 67.
Sjoberg, who made his Foxes debut against Cardiff City in October 1960, began life at Filbert Street as a right-back and was part of the 1963 Cup run which culminated with a Wembley appearance against Manchester United.
He was a stalwart of the League Cup campaigns of the next two years and scored the decisive semi-final goal at Home Park in 1965.
Barring an unluckily unusual performance at West Brom in April 1966, when he became the only City player ever to score two own goals in one game, Sjoberg then settled into a memorable central defensive partnership with Graham Cross.
This quality tempted Matt Gillies into giving him one spell as a centre-forward during 1967/8!
An injury forced him to miss the 1969 FA Cup Final against Manchester City but two years later he was a key member of the Second Division Championship side and took his testimonial game against Derby after the title had been secured, attracting a best ever Filbert Street crowd for such an even of around 24,000.
Sjoberg started a printing business, Beaumanor Press in Bath Lane, during his latter days at Leicester and was able to return to this when he finally hung up his boots, having made 413 appearances for City and scored 19 goals.
He remained in that industry for around 30 years eventually selling the company about six years ago, opting for a spot of gardening and walking instead.
