From Bicycle Thief to Football Legend

“I didn’t injure you on purpose, and you know that. If you accuse me again I’ll break both your legs, and that time it will be on purpose.” – Zlatan Ibrahimovic


Zlatan Ibrahimovic was born to a Bosnian father and Croatian mother in a rocky marriage that broke up when he was 2 years old.

As a young kid growing up in the poorest parts of Malmo in Sweden, he watched his father binge drink and suffer from his mother’s temperament.

A Childhood of Troubles

As a small boy with a big nose and a slight speech defect, he found joy in causing troubles on the street amongst his peers.

A legendary troublemaker as we all know him to be, the streets really had a profound effect on his early childhood years.





With no father figure to help shape him, Zlatan took to the streets and made of himself what he could.

Zlatan got his first football boots at the age of 6 after showing interest in football.

He always got into one trouble or the other in school. His school head was interviewed and asked about Zlatan. What she said about him was surreal.

“I’ve been at this school 33 years, and Zlatan is easily in the top five of most unruly pupils we’ve ever had. He was the number one bad boy, a prototype of a child that ends up in serious trouble.”

As strange as that was, Zlatan actually agreed he was a handful growing up.

When he was asked what he would be into if football had not come through for him, he simply replied “criminal”.

So how did Zlatan Ibrahimovic end up as a football icon rather than a criminal?

The Bicycle Thief

Zlatan decided to focus more on football in his early teenage years and when he was 15, he joined Malmo FC.

Because he lived far away from the team’s training centre, Zlatan would steal bicycles on the streets to ride to training every day.






One day after training, he discovered his stolen bicycle had been stolen. He found a very beautiful bicycle outside the dressing room.

The teenage Zlatan stole the bicycle and rode it home.

The next day, every player in the youth team was summoned. Someone had stolen the Assistant Manager’s bicycle!

So as not to attract the attention of the Assistant Manager, he would park the bicycle far away from the training center where no one could find it.

As a foreigner in the youth team, a parent of another teammate once put up a petition to have him kicked out of the team.






The cocky Zlatan had headbutted the teammate in an altercation.

Against all odds, Zlatan stayed on the team and at age 17, he got the chance to make his debut.

The Arsenal Offer

After a fantastic debut season with the Malmo first team, he caught the eye of Arsenal’s Arsene Wenger.

The Frenchman invited him for a trial at the London club but the 17-year old Zlatan declined the offer.

That was an offer a lot of youngsters would have jumped at but the Swede declined.

He was reported to have responded “Zlatan doesn’t do auditions” to the offer.






What kind of 17-year old rejects a trial with a big European club in such a cocky manner?

In 40 appearances for Malmo FC, the teenage Zlatan scored 16 goals between 1999 and 2001.

The Breakthrough

During a friendly match between Malmo FC and Norwegian side Moss FK, the Swede impressed Leo Beenhakker, the Technical Director of Ajax, who was present.

In March 2001, Ajax announced the signing of the Swede for €8.7m.






During his early days at Ajax FC, Zlatan didn’t get enough playing time in the first 8 months under Co Adriaanse.

But luck shone on him when Ronald Koeman was appointed Ajax FC Coach after the former Coach was fired on November 29, 2001.

The new Coach included Zlatan in his starting lineup and Ajax FC went on to win the 2001/2002 Eredivisie title.

The Zlatan Way

The next season, Zlatan made the headlines when he scored a brace for Ajax FC in a 2-1 defeat of Olympic Lyon in his debut UEFA Champions League match in September 2002.

That season, he scored 5 UEFA Champions League goals before Ajax FC succumbed to the superior firepower of Italian giants AC Milan in the Quarter-finals of the competition.

2 years later, the 21-year old Zlatan Ibrahimovic made the headlines scream his name again.

He produced an absolute wonder of a goal which saw Pundits compare him to Diego Maradona and Zinedine Zidane.






An individual goal against NAC Breda which saw him dribble his way past 5 opposition players had people talking about him.

That goal was eventually voted the Eurosport Goal of the Year by viewers.

Video: Watch Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s wonder goal against NAC Breda

The End of the Ajax Romance

Trouble reared its ugly head again when he injured his teammate Rafael Van Der Vaart when Sweden and the Netherlands played an international friendly match in 2004.




Rafael Van Der Vaart accused Zlatan of hurting him intentionally and this situation within the club led to the Swede leaving for Juventus in the following days.





In 74 appearances for the Dutch side, Zlatan scored 35 goals.

Juventus Strikes Gold

Juventus acquired the Swede forward for €16m and he made his way into the starting lineup immediately.

By the end of the season, Zlatan had scored 16 goals and helped Juventus to the Serie A title.






By the end of his debut season in Serie A, he was awarded the Serie A Foreign Footballer of the Year.

In November 2005, he won the Swedish Footballer of the Year award.

At the height of the Calciopoli scandal which saw Juventus stripped of their last 2 Scudetto titles and relegated to Serie B, Zlatan Ibrahimovic forced a €24.8m move to Inter Milan.

This was a few days after Patrick Vieira had switched from Juventus to Inter Milan.






In 70 appearances for Juventus, Zlatan found the back of the net 23 times. This was because in his second season, he was moved from being the target man to the wing.

As his goalscoring reduced, he racked up assists for the club.

Ruling Italy

At Inter Milan, he enjoyed a great time with the Nerazurri, scoring 57 times in 88 appearances.

On his Inter Milan debut against Roma, he helped the side win the 2006 SuperCoppa Italiana.






In his first season, he scored 15 Serie A goals and helped his team win the Italian Scudetto with 97 points.

In his second season with Inter Milan, he scored 17 Serie A goals and also helped the side to a 2nd consecutive Scudetto win.






He was also named the Serie A Footballer of the Year and Serie A Foreign Footballer of the Year.

In his final season with Inter Milan, he emerged the league’s top scorer with 25 goals and helped the Milan side to a 3rd consecutive Scudetto win.






For the second time, he was awarded the Serie A Footballer of the Year and Serie A Foreign Footballer of the Year.

Life in Barcelona

Prior to the start of the 2009/2010 season, Barcelona expressed interest in the Inter Milan striker.

An agreement was reached by both sides and a deal which saw Barcelona exchange prolific striker Samuel Eto’o plus €46m for the towering Swede forward was concluded.






At Barcelona, he set a La Liga record after scoring in his first 5 consecutive league matches.

He suffered a thigh injury in November 2009 that kept him out of action for 3 weeks.

On his return as a second half substitute for Thierry Henry against Real Madrid, he scored his 8th goal of the season.






In an interview with The Guardian, "I was probably with the best team in history. Their football was beautiful.”

“When I prepared for a game, I knew I had won even before we started. I looked at the players around me and saw Messi and Iniesta and Xavi and Puyol and Piqué and Dani Alves and Busquets.”

”Unbelievable! It was football from another planet and I loved it. It was technically perfect."

Shaking up Guardiola

He continued to excel for the Catalan side until trouble reared its head once more.

He admitted to the media that his relationship with Pep Guardiola had started deteriorating.






Soon, things took an ugly turn after their semi-final defeat to Inter Milan in the UEFA Champions League.

Zlatan claimed he confronted Pep Guardiola in the changing room and yelled at him, “You haven't got any balls! You can go to hell!”

In his autobiography I Am Zlatan, he opened up more on the situation with Guardiola.

“It started well but then Messi started to talk. He wanted to play in the middle, not on the wing, so the system changed from 4–3–3 to 4–5–1. I was sacrificed and no longer had the freedom on the pitch I need to succeed.”

Guardiola Escapes Zlatan

At the start of the 2010/2011 season, Zlatan Ibrahimovic was loaned to AC Milan with an option to permanently sign him for €24m.






During his time at Barcelona, he played 29 games and scored 16 times for the club.

Zlatan enjoyed his loan spell at AC Milan which prompted him to put pen to paper on a 4-year deal.






During his time at AC Milan, he finished as Serie A top scorer with 28 goals in 32 games.

The Paris Saint-Germain Love Affair

After the 2011/2012 season, PSG offered to sign Zlatan Ibrahimovic for €20m. The deal was agreed and the Swede forward moved to France.

Between 2012 and 2016, Zlatan scored 113 goals in 122 games for the Paris






Former French International Jean Pierre-Papin was quoted as saying, "We haven't had a goalscorer like him in France for a long time. He is on a different planet to anyone else."

Such was the attention he brought the French Ligue 1 during his time there. His exploits on the pitch were second to none.






He enjoyed so much adoration from fans and teammates because of his exploits on the field and the aura he commanded.

In his 4 seasons with PSG, he won the French Ligue title 4 times, the Coupe de France 2 times, Coupe de la Ligue 3 times, and Trophée des Champions 3 times.








The Mourinho Reunion

After leaving PSG at the end of the season, Zlatan Ibrahimovic became a free agent.

His former Coach Jose Mourinho expressed interest in signing him and soon, a 1-year agreement was reached.






Jose Mourinho and Zlatan’s reunion at Manchester United helped the team win 3 titles.

In the Swede’s first game for the United side, he scored the winning goal in the 2016 Charity Shield match against Leicester City to help his side clinch the trophy.






He also helped the team win EFL Cup in March 2017 after scoring 2 goals against Southampton FC in a keenly contested match.

While at Manchester United, he experienced a taste of European glory which had previously eluded him.

Manchester United side won the 2016/2017 Europa League trophy after defeating Ajax FC 2-0 in the final in Zlatan’s home country of Sweden.






At the end of a successful season with the club, his 1-year agreement was renewed.

In the 2017/2018 season with Manchester United, he became the first player to play in the UEFA Champions League for 7 clubs.






At the end of March 2018, the club announced that Zlatan had agreed to terminate his contract with the club.

In 33 appearances for Manchester United, he scored 17 goals in a trophy-laden stint.

LA Galaxy

After leaving Manchester United, he opted to play in the MLS when he signed for LA Galaxy.

He delivered spectacular performances as expected of him and the fans couldn’t help but want more.






After 1 and half seasons with the MLS side, he announced on Twitter that he was leaving the club.

In 56 appearances for LA Galaxy, he scored 52 goals to leave his memory in the hearts of the LA Galaxy fans.






Milan Again

In December 2019, Zlatan signed again for AC Milan on a 6-month contract. He now plays for the Serie A side he left in 2012.

Ibrahimovic, his unending Controversies and Witty Remarks

This article would be incomplete if I don’t write about this controversial life of Zlatan.

Zlatan isn’t Zlatan without his usual dose of controversy and witty remarks.

· "Arsène Wenger asked me to have a trial with Arsenal when I was 17. I turned it down. Zlatan doesn't do auditions."

· "You bought a Ferrari, but you drive it like a Fiat."

· "Swedish style? No! Yugoslavian style? Of course not! It has to be Zlatan-style."

· "In 15 years I've never seen a [good] referee in this shit country ... [they] don't even deserve PSG."

· “One thing is for sure, a World Cup without me is nothing to watch so it is not worthwhile to wait for the World Cup.”

· "Only God knows... You’re talking to him now"

· “What Carew does with a football, I can do with an orange.”

· “At Barca, players were banned from driving their sports cars to training. I thought this was ridiculous – it was no one’s business what car I drive – so in April, before a match with Almeria, I drove my Ferrari Enzo to work. It caused a scene.”

· “First I went left, he did too. Then I went right, and he did too. Then I went left again, and he went to buy a hot dog.”

· “I didn’t injure you on purpose, and you know that. If you accuse me again I’ll break both your legs, and that time it will be on purpose.”

· “Mido picked up a pair of scissors and flung them at me. It was completely nuts. The scissors whizzed past my head, straight into the concrete wall and made a crack in it. I went over and gave him a smack, but 10 minutes later we left with our arms around each other. Much later I discovered our team manager had kept those scissors as a souvenir, to show his kids.”

· “Then Guardiola started his philosopher thing. I was barely listening. Why would I? It was advanced bullshit about blood, sweat and tears, that kind of stuff.”

· ‘It was a joke,’ I explained. “The cops laughed, but a photographer appeared and snapped a photo. Idiot that I was, I put on a huge grin. You can imagine what happened next.”

· "We are looking for an apartment; if we do not find anything, then we will just buy a hotel."

· “I came like a hero, left like a legend.”

The Unlucky Zlatan

Despite being a goal scoring monster for both club and country, Zlatan Ibrahimovic never played in the FIFA World Cup.

At the height of it all, they were knocked out of qualification for the World Cup by Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal.






He also suffered a bout of ill-luck. European glory eluded him like a plague.

After leaving Inter Milan for Barcelona at the end of the 2008/2009 season, Inter Milan won the UEFA Champions League the following season with Samuel Eto’o.

While Zlatan was on loan at AC Milan from Barcelona during the 2010/2011 season, Barcelona won the much coveted European trophy.

Until he signed for Manchester United, he never won an European competition.

Conclusion

What would Zlatan be remembered for? His goal scoring prowess on the football field or his cockiness?

England fans will forever remember the anguish they felt when he shut them up with an overhead kick screamer from 40 yards out.






Ajax FC fans will always remember him for his individual goal against NAC Breda where he slalomed his way past 5 opposition players like knife through butter.

Stephan El-Shaarawy will never forget the man who made his life a living hell when they played together at AC Milan.

Video: Watch Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s 40-yard overhead screamer

Above all, he will always be fondly remembered for his witty remarks.

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