“King” and “Legend” in France, “Lion” in England, “God” in Sweden and Milan and “Earthquake” in Los Angeles: Zlatan Ibrahimovic (41) ends his period at Milan leaving out the most strident qualifiers. Sure of himself, bordering on arrogance and sometimes contempt, the Swedish footballer knows how to play with his image, from Milan to Manchester via Paris, and use it in his relationship with the media, the public and the sponsors.
“I came like a king, I leave like a legend”: this was the announcement of his departure from Paris SG in 2016, it remains one of the striker’s best-known phrases for the French public. Two years later, in 2018, American soccer fans discovered the player and the media beast. His first goal with the Los Angeles Galaxy team? “An earthquake”, “I, set foot in Los Angeles”, he said then.
Force of nature, ‘Ibra’ christened his return to the Swedish team in 2021 with the status of “Return of God'” claimed, reports the Swedish newspaper ‘Aftonbladet’, facing the “King” Eric Cantonna , when the Swede arrived at Manchester United in 2016. The Frenchman welcomed Zlatan in a video, offering him to be “Prince” as “there can only be a king in Manchester.”
On Sunday night, at the press conference that ended his career, he couldn’t help but call himself “Superman.” But “Superman also has a heart,” he added, admitting that he gets emotional.
Regularly questioned about his age, the forward justified his return to the Premier League with United, after seven months of immobilization caused by a torn cruciate ligament, to “become a better version of my old self”. . “I’m sorry for everything. Lions don’t get better like people,” he said then.
On his return to the Italian Championship in 2020, he was happy to compare himself to ‘Benjamin Button’, that character who is getting younger and younger. “I’m like Benjamin Button: I was born old, but I’m going to die young,” repeated the man who contributed a lot to leading Milan to the title of champion in 2022.
Unforgettable departure from the tone with the arrival of Covid
But ‘Ibra’ has also learned to manage the second level, sometimes exaggerating its indestructible nature, as when it participated during the Covid-2019 pandemic in a campaign to promote respect for the rules of distancing and use of the mask, for the region of Lombardy. “The virus challenged me and I beat it. But you’re not Zlatan, don’t challenge the virus,” he launched in a video in the fall of 2020, a few weeks after suffering from the disease himself.
Zlatan asserts himself as the guardian figure of the countries where he plays: Sweden, which he “put on the world map”, like France, where he “took power”, or England, which he reached ” three months to cover”. He still looks down on his audience. “They wanted Zlatan, I gave them Zlatan. You’re welcome. (…) Now go back to your baseball games,” he suddenly tweeted as a farewell to his American fans.
Whistled by the PSG fans in 2015, he stated: “They demand a lot. It’s strange, compared to what they had before… Because before they didn’t have anything.” And sometimes, Zlatan was wrong, calling France a “country of m…” that “doesn’t deserve PSG”, after the defeat. The main thing for him was to stay in the spotlight, until his last words as a footballer on Sunday night: “When I woke up, it was raining, I thought that even God was sad,” he launched.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
