Sven-Göran Eriksson may have gone more than a year without a job when he stepped down as England head coach, but the Swede’s latest brush with unemployment lasted less than 48 hours.

Having walked away with a tidy £1.25 million payoff after being dismissed as Manchester City manager on Monday, Eriksson was named the coach of Mexico yesterday after securing yet another bumper payday.

Eriksson thanked the Mexican Football Federation for its “confidence and support” after signing a two-year contract, although it is a reputed annual salary of £3.5 million that he is most likely to appreciate. Just as Mrs Merton famously asked Debbie McGee what attracted her to the millionaire magician Paul Daniels, so it is hard not to believe that money has been a motivation behind Eriksson’s decision to accept the post.

Since his departure as England head coach in July 2006, in the wake of the World Cup quarter-final defeat on penalties to Portugal, Eriksson has earned about £7.5 million. That includes his £3.75 million payoff by the FA, the £2.5 million he earned for one season in charge of City and the £1.25 million settlement he received from Thaksin Shinawatra, although City fans will probably not begrudge him a penny, given his treatment at the hands of the club’s owner.

Eriksson has been branded many things down the years, but the dignity he displayed throughout the final eight weeks of his tenure at the City of Manchester Stadium, when it became clear that he was a “dead man walking”, earned him considerable sympathy.

Now he has been charged with attempting to get Mexico to the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa after the owners of the country’s 18 top-flight teams unanimously approved his appointment as successor to Hugo Sánchez, who was sacked in March for failing to guide the country’s under-23 team to the Olympic Games in Beijing this summer.

Eriksson will not take up the post officially until June 21, when Mexico play Belize in Monterrey in the second leg of the second round of World Cup qualifiers. Jesús Ramírez will continue in temporary charge of the team for the friendly matches against Argentina in San Diego today, Peru in Chicago four days later and the first leg against Belize in Houston on Sunday week.

Some senior Mexico players have expressed reservations about Eriksson’s appointment, but the Swede, who has a longstanding admiration for Mexican football, is confident that he will win people over.

“Mexico is a big, big job,” Eriksson, 60, who will live in the country, said. “To help Mexico reach the World Cup is a big challenge. You [Mexicans] have 120 million people and it’s motivating. I like big challenges so it is up to me to convince the supporters and the players that I am the right man.

“My job will be to improve the job the players have been doing and not to change their mentality. I don’t want to talk too much about players as I don’t think it is professional. There is another coach still working.”

Famous Mexicans

Carlos Santana
Eric Clapton with a perm. Start downloading, Sven

Jorge Campos
Crazy shirts, crazy goalkeeper

Oscar De La Hoya
Mexican-American pretty boy and boxing legend

Hugo Sánchez
Real Madrid and Mexico goal machine, who was the master of overhead kicks and bubble perms

Speedy Gonzales
The fastest mouse in all Mexico