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Zlatan Ibrahimović

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Zlatan Ibrahimović
Personal information
Height 1.92 m (6 ft 3+1⁄2 in)[1]
Position(s) Striker
Team information
Current team
 Internazionale
Number 8
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 7 September 2008

Zlatan Ibrahimović (born October 3, 1981 in Malmö) is a Swedish football striker of Bosnian descent[3] who plays for Italian Serie A club Internazionale and the Swedish national team.

Early life

Ibrahimović's Bosnian parents emigrated to Sweden, where they first met. Ibrahimović grew up in Rosengård, a Malmö neighbourhood known for its immigrant communities. He began playing football at the age of eight, alternating between local junior clubs Malmö Anadolu B.I. and FBK Balkan.

At the age of six, he was a regular in hometown club Malmö FF, whose participants consisted of Bosnian and Somalian immigrants of the Rosengård neighbourhood. While at Malmö FF, Zlatan often played with individuals up to twenty years his senior. He successfully completed junior high school in the ninth grade, and though he was admitted to Borgarskolan in Malmö, he soon dropped out of high school to focus on his football career.

Club career

Malmö FF

Ibrahimović signed his first contract with his hometown club Malmö FF in 1996, and moved up to the senior side for the 1999 season of Allsvenskan, Sweden's top-flight league. That season, Malmö finished 13th in the league and were relegated to the second division, but returned to the top flight the next season. Arsenal coach Arsène Wenger unsuccessfully tried to persuade Ibrahimović to join, while AFC Ajax coach Leo Beenhakker also expressed interest in the player after watching him in a training match against Norwegian side Moss F.K. On March 22, 2001, a deal between Ajax and Malmö regarding Ibrahimović's transfer to Amsterdam was announced, and in July, Ibrahimović officially joined Ajax for €7.8 million.

AFC Ajax

Ibrahimović received little playing time under manager Co Adriaanse, but when Adriaanse was sacked on November 29, 2001, new coach Ronald Koeman inserted Ibrahimović into the starting lineup as Ajax won the 2001-02 Eredivisie title. The next season, Ibrahimović scored twice in a 2-1 victory over perennial French champions Olympique Lyonnais in his Champions League debut on September 17, 2002. He scored four CL goals overall as Ajax fell to A.C. Milan in the quarterfinals. In his final season with Ajax, Ibrahimović scored a goal against NAC Breda on August 22, 2004 that was eventually voted the goal of the year by Eurosport viewers. He netted only once in the '03-04 Champions League (against Celta Vigo on October 22) as Ajax were eliminated in the group stage.

On August 18, 2004, Ibrahimović injured fellow Ajax teammate Rafael van der Vaart during an international match against the Netherlands, which led to accusations from van der Vaart that Ibrahimović had hurt him intentionally. This led to Ibrahimović's sudden sale to Juventus F.C. on August 31, 2004.

Juventus

Ibrahimović moved from Ajax to Juventus for a €19 million transfer fee. He was promptly inserted into the starting eleven due in part to top scorer David Trézéguet's injury problems, and scored sixteen goals. Near the end of the season, Juventus reportedly rejected a €70 million bid for him from Real Madrid, which was later revealed to be a publicity stunt initiated by Ibrahimović's agent, Mino Raiola, in order to increase his market value. On November 14 2005, he was awarded the Guldbollen, a prize awarded to the best Swedish footballer of the year.

The following season, his role in Juventus's attack changed, as he became less of a goalscorer and moved more to the sidelines, taking much part in the build-up play, especially as a target player, and his assist numbers increased. However, Juventus were stripped of their last two Scudetti as part of the verdict from the Calciopoli scandal, and were relegated to Serie B, and the new staff tried to persuade Ibrahimović, and other top players, to stay with Juventus, but the player and his agent were adamant to move, while Raiola threatened legal action in order to extricate Ibrahimović from his contract.

Internazionale

Ibrahimović signed a four-year contract with Internazionale for € 24.8 million on August 10 2006.[4] He revealed that Inter was his favourite club as a child. He started his spell at the club by scoring one goal and assisting another against ACF Fiorentina.

On September 16, 2007, Ibrahimović played his hundredth Serie A match. He scored two Champions League goals in the group stage against PSV Eindhoven on October 2, which marked his first European goals since December 2005 and his first goals overall in an Inter jersey, and finished with five goals in seven CL matches. Against Parma in the final league matchday on May 18, 2008, he returned from a chronic knee injury and scored both goals as Inter won 2-0, clinching their third straight Scudetto.

International career

Playing for Sweden.

Ibrahimović debuted for Sweden in a goalless friendly match against the Faroe Islands on January 31, 2001. His first competitive match was a 2002 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Azerbaijan on October 7. Ibrahimović was part of Sweden's 2002 World Cup finals squad who were eliminated in the round of 16 by Senegal.

Ibrahimović was a fixture in the starting lineup for Euro 2004, scoring a penalty against Bulgaria and rounding off a fine performance against the solid defense of Italy by scoring an incredible airborn backheel. However, he missed a penalty as Sweden were sent home following a shootout loss to the Netherlands. He went scoreless during the 2006 World Cup finals as Sweden were again snuffed out in the round of 16, this time by Germany.

He was called up for a Euro 2008 qualifier against Liechtenstein on September 6, 2006, but two days before the match, he violated team curfew by leaving the hotel with teammates Christian Wilhelmsson and Olof Mellberg and attending a nightclub. Though neither of the players consumed any alcohol, they were nonetheless all sent home by coach Lars Lagerbäck as punishment and did not take part in the match. Mellberg and Wilhelmsson did not appeal the coach's decision, but Ibrahimović felt that it was unjust and therefore refused to take part in Sweden's next qualifiers against Iceland and Spain. He also skipped a friendly against Egypt on February 7, 2007, but ended his self-imposed boycott a month later[5], and returned for Sweden's loss to Northern Ireland on March 28. He went scoreless in all twelve qualifying matches; his one goal was disallowed for offside in a 3-0 loss to Spain on November 17. On November 12, 2007, Ibrahimović was awarded the 2007 Swedish Golden Ball as the country's top player of the year.

Ibrahimović ended his international goal drought, which had lasted for over two years, against Greece in Sweden's Euro 2008 opener on June 10, 2008, and the next match against Spain four days later. He finished the tournament with the two goals as Sweden were eliminated playing a 0-2 game versus Russia in their last group stage game.

Personal life

Zlatan and his girlfriend, Helena Seger, have two sons, Maximilian and Vincent.

Career statistics

Template:Football player statistics 1 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |1999||rowspan="3"|Malmö||Allsvenskan||6||1||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||6||1 |- |2000||Superettan||26||12||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||26||12 |- |2001||Allsvenskan||8||3||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||8||3 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |2001-02||rowspan="4"|Ajax||rowspan="4"|Eredivisie||24||6||3||0||6||2||30||8 |- |2002-03||25||13||3||3||13||5||38||18 |- |2003-04||22||13||1||0||6||1||22||14 |- |2004-05||3||3||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||3||3 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |2004-05||rowspan="2"|Juventus||rowspan="2"|Serie A||35||16||colspan="2"|-||10||0||45||16 |- |2005-06||35||7||2||0||9||3||46||10 |- |2006-07||rowspan="3"|Internazionale Milano||rowspan="3"|Serie A||27||15||2||0||7||0||36||15 |- |2007-08||26||17||colspan="2"|-||7||5||33||22 |- |2008-09||7||5||||||2||0||9||5 Template:Football player statistics 340||16||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||40||16 Template:Football player statistics 474||35||7||3||15||8||106||46 Template:Football player statistics 4127||59||4||0||33||8||163||64 Template:Football player statistics 5241||110||11||3||58||16||309||128 |}

Honours

Ajax

Juventus

Internazionale

Individual

References

  1. ^ F.C. Internazionale Milano
  2. ^ Inter.it stats
  3. ^ The Big Interview: Zlatan Ibrahimović - The Sunday Times
  4. ^ "JUVE SLAP £25m PRICE TAG ON ZLATAN". sportinglife.com. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  5. ^ "Ibrahimović agrees to return to Sweden side". ESPNsoccernet. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
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