The Best of Zlatan Ibrahimovic

The Best of Zlatan Ibrahimovic

James Caughlin

Love him or hate him, the football world is going to miss Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

With the 2022/2023 European club season drawing to a close, the 41 year old has called time on his career.

His larger than life personality combined with an acid tongue and phenomenal footballing ability made him a cult hero wherever he went.

At just about every stop on his world tour, Ibrahimovic tasted success and usually left a trail of frustrated defenders in his wake to go with the headline writers whose job he made infinitely easier.

We’ve compiled some of our favourite Zlatan moments from his lengthy career.

Going Out in Typical Zlatan Fashion

Let’s start with the most recent one, during his retirement speech, some of the visiting fans decided to boo their rival’s retiring striker.

So Zlatan responded in the only way he knew how.

He Can Insult His Opponents in Six Languages

Plenty of professional athletes across multiple sporting codes have been accused of being a bit thick from time to time (look up some of David Beckham’s most memorable quotes).

Not our Zlatan though, being bi or tri lingual wasn’t enough for him, he decided he needed to learn six languages.

That might seem like a lot but when you play the world game in glamourous places like Paris, Barcelona, Milan as well as other spots like Manchester and Los Angeles, it’s good to have a wide range of dialects to call on.

“Zlatan Doesn’t Do Auditions”

This gem was uttered when legendary Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger offered the Swede a trial with the North London club.

If he said this at the height of his career it would have been impressive, the fact he was still a teenager still establishing himself in the World Game makes even more outrageous.

In an era of overconfident footballers, Zlatan’s was off the charts from day one… and probably justified too.

A Waste of a World Cup

Sweden drew Portugal in the 2014 World Cup playoffs pitting Zlatan against Cristiano Ronaldo and the Ibrahimovich gave us this piece of gold before the tie.

Zlatan: “Only God knows who will go through.”

Reporter: “It’s hard to ask him.”

Zlatan: “You’re talking to him.”

Apparently’ God’s vision might have been a little cloudy because Portugal went through to the tournament and Sweden were sent to their couches.

However Zlatan felt like the fans heading to Brazil and watching on TV might be feeling a bit duded by his absence.

“A World Cup without me is nothing to watch, so it is not worth waiting for the World Cup.”

Although given that this was his reaction after Sweden was eliminated from Euro 2012 perhaps we should have seen that one coming.

“I don’t give a s— who wins. I’m going on holiday.”

Get on Your Bike

How many players would have the thought to try something like this, let alone actually attempt it and pull it off?

In a career full of spectacular goals, this one may be the best.

Fair to say that one is still lingering in the back of Joe Hart’s subconscious.

Getting Better and Better

After watching these highlights, who are we to argue with this incredibly humble quote?

Making Manchester Great

Zlatan came and took the Premier League by storm as only he can, pulling on the number nine shirt at Old Trafford.

He helped the club to three trophies in his time in England’s north and left with a plethora of highlights to add to the tape.

The American Debut

Always the showman, Ibra had to have a stop in Tinseltown and his debut for LA Galaxy was ridiculous.

For a mere mortal that would have set an insanely high bar but Ibra just went on with it and scored some bangers on the other side of the Atlantic.

LeBron Who?

The Lakers superstar might be the biggest name athlete in LA at the moment but it’s fair to say LeBron didn’t quite register on Zlatan’s radar.

But at least we know Ibra is always willing to do a favour for a fan.

Zava

Ted Lasso viewers would have spotted the similarities between the mercurial striker Richmond signs in season three and the subject of this article.

If you just saw some of these quotes on paper, you would have assumed they came straight from the mind of Zlatan.

They even had him scoring some ridiculous goals as well.

In a career full of memorable moments those are just a few of his best and we’ll just leave it with a fond farewell to the best character we have seen.