Zlatan Ibrahimovic

Zlatan Ibrahimovic is a Sweden international footballer who currently features for the Italian giants AC Milan. Ibrahimovic is rated as one of the best strikers in the world but is also said to be highly temperamental.

Ibrahimovic was born and raised in the immigrant suburb of Rosengard outside Malmo in the South of Sweden. He is the son of a Bosnian father and a Croatian mother. His parents met one another in Sweden. Ibrahimovic completed the ninth grade but did not advance to upper secondary school because he wanted to focus entirely on football.

Ibrahimovic signed with hometown club Malmo FF in 1995, and moved up to the senior side for the 1999 season of Allsvenskan, Sweden’s top-flight league. His impressive form for Malmo for two seasons persuaded Dutch giants AFC Ajex to sign the player in the summer of 2001 for a healthy €7.8 million. That’s the highest sum ever paid to a Swedish club for a player!

In his four subsequent seasons at the Amsterdam Arena, Zlatan Ibrahimovic stretched himself from being one of the most promising strikers in Europe to one of the best in the continent. He scored 35 goals in 73 appearances for the Dutch powerhouse and was a regular for most of his term at the club.

Despite his size he is a very technical forward and can do magic with the ball and also has a bit of pace. Zlatan Ibrahimović is often considered as the best Swedish footballer and he has consistently demonstrated that in his time in Italy.

In the summer of 2004, Italian superpower Juventus signed Zlatan for a lumpsome €19 million and in his two seasons in Turin for the Old Lady, he did indeed repay his employers with 23 goals in 70 appearances and strings of match chaging flicks and turns.

But in the summer of 2006 when Juventus were relegated to the Italian Serie B because of their involvement in the calciopoli scandal. Zlatan Ibrahimovic was one of the first players to head out of Turin and was signed by Inter Milan for €24.8 million. Under coach Roberto Mancini, he developed into an ever better and more reliable striker and won back to back scudetto with Inter Milan.

On the last day of the 2007-2008 Italian Serie A season, Zlatan Ibrahimović came off the bench in the second half against Parma and scored two goals to secure Inter Milan their third successive Serie A triumph.

In the summer of 2009 after winning yet another Scudetto with Inter, Ibrahimovic joined Spanish powerhouse Barcelona and won La Liga with them in the 2009-10 campaign. However, he failed to see eye-to-eye with coach Pep Guardiola and joined AC Milan on a season-long loan. Ibrahimovic won the Italian championship.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic made his debut for Sweden in a goalless friendly match against the Faroe Islands on January 31, 2001. He has since settled into the first team and played for Sweden in the 2002 World Cup, Euro 2004 and 2006 World Cup. Ibrahimović was awarded the 2007 Swedish Golden Ball as the country’s top player of the year in November.