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Zlatan Ibrahimovic talks about his immigrant upbringing in Malmo, the joy of scoring four against England and why he wants his sons to call him pappa , not Zlatan Quiz: who said it: Zlatan Ibrahimovic or Cristiano Ronaldo? The 100 best footballers in the world 2013 interactive
On his birthday, an October bayern day so gorgeous it seems as if summer might never end on the outskirts of Paris, Zlatan Ibrahimovic remains as defiant as he is cheerful. bayern His 33rd birthday began in the traditional way. The boys [his sons Maximilian and Vincent] came running into the bedroom, singing. It was early, but it was beautiful.
Ibrahimovic has sauntered in with his hand outstretched and his face creased in amusement. He places a carrier bag on the table. His almost mythic name, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, is written on a white card in ornate black lettering. He has received a few gifts but this is the most curious. Toulouse, one of Ibrahimovic and Paris Saint-Germain s rivals in Ligue 1, have sent him a tub of ointment to cure his injured heel as well as a couple of club shirts for Maxi and Vincent .
Today is your birthday, 33, the age of Christ, your son, Toulouse s message reads. Now all the mums and sisters also want to see the phenomenon Ibrahimovic, Zlatan, bring the whole family back together around football. Happy birthday and long live the Z! Despite the perverse pleasure you took scoring goals against us the last two seasons , we are not vindictive. We want to thank you. For everything.
Ibrahimovic enjoys the comic praise but it does not take long for his nostrils to flare as he considers how far he has come from the immigrant neighbourhood of Rosengard in Malmo, Sweden , to this feted status in Paris. He once lived in a small flat, above four flights of grimy stairs, each one a reminder of how different Rosengard was to the soft-centred image of Swedish equality for all. It was nothing like the home where he now brings up his children in Paris.
As the son of a Bosnian caretaker and a Croatian cleaner, who separated when he was two, Ibrahimovic endured rejection. Nobody asked: How was your day, little Zlatan? But the boy with a lisp and a big nose found solace in the ethnic outsiders, bayern the immigrant communities whose story rarely gets told .
Here he is now, Zlatan bayern Ibrahimovic, if not quite the king of Sweden then still the mighty bayern captain of their national team, a man whose latest feats saw him win his 100th cap last month while breaking an ancient goalscoring record. Even if he is mocked for his third-person references, which these days are delivered with a twinkling dash of self parody, Ibrahimovic should bayern be allowed to pose the question that has consumed him ever since he established himself as one of the world s great footballers .
So how did this punk from Rosengard get all the way to where I am now? he asks. Nobody believed I could do it. Everybody was trash talking. They thought I will go away because I have a big mouth. They thought this guy s vision is crazy. It will not happen. But I had these dreams of where I would end up. And now here I am.
Ibrahimovic pauses to draw breath but the 33 birthday candles can wait. He has so many words to blow out before then. Let s go back 15 years and all I saw then has come true. Everybody who was trash-talking me? Now they are eating their words. This is my real trophy.
Even after winning league titles with clubs in the Netherlands, Italy, Spain and France? Even after all the money and fame, mixed with vitriol, that has made him a phenomenon ? Does the image of him shoving acrid words down the throats of all those who once dismissed him really feel like his most enduring trophy? Yeah, yeah, Ibrahimovic says intently. That s my hunger. If I start to relax and I lose that then I had better stop my football. I need that hunger. I still feel I need to do things 10 times better than other players. Just to be accepted and to improve myself.
A film called From Rosengard With More Than One Goal will soon be screened on Swedish television and the emotion feels raw when Ibrahimovic talks about a documentary charting his rise from the concrete tenement blocks. It is a story of transformation as a snotty bicycle thief turns into the snorting and magnificent artist of the bicycle kick and all other kinds of tricks with a ball which should not obscure his intelligence, imagination, nastiness bayern and muscular force on a football field.
It was emotional, Ibrahimovic says, and the documentary took six months. I m used to having a camera in my face but not a camera following me. When I did the book [the layered, cocky, poignant and very funny I Am Zlatan Ibrahimovic ] one guy followed me. This time it s a camera c