Zlatan Ibrahimović: the striker who never did things quietly

Some players adapt to the club they join. Zlatan Ibrahimović made the club adapt to him. He arrived with a reputation, and in most places he left with a bigger one: a striker of enormous size and surprising grace who scored goals nobody else would attempt, and who said out loud, with a straight face, that he was the best.

For two decades the results mostly backed him up. He won the league in four different countries, and nobody who watched him on a good day forgot it.

The numbers

The curve is the shape of a career that did not fade at the usual age. It climbs through Ajax and Italy, sits on a high plateau in Barcelona and the first Milan spell, and then peaks in Paris, where his final season is the best of all. Even at United and in Los Angeles the goals kept coming, and the late bars at Milan are short because he played little, held back by injury.

Malmö and Ajax: the breakthrough

He started in Malmö, his home city, and in 2001 moved to Ajax, where he got into the starting line-up and helped win the Eredivisie in 2001–02. In 2004 he scored the goal that made him famous across Europe: against NAC Breda on 22 August, he slalomed past five opponents, a run compared on the commentary to Maradona and Zidane. Eurosport viewers voted it Goal of the Year.

Italy: Juventus and Inter

He moved to Juventus in 2004, and the two Serie A titles the club won in his two seasons there were later revoked in the 2006 match-fixing scandal, which is why they do not appear in his honours. He moved on to Inter Milan.

Inter is where he became the finished article. He won three Serie A titles in a row, from 2006–07 to 2008–09, and was the league's top scorer in the last of them. He has credited José Mourinho, who coached him there, with changing him as a player.

"Turned me from a cat into a lion."

— Zlatan Ibrahimović on Mourinho at Inter, as reported by GiveMeSport

Barcelona, and back to Milan

In 2009 Barcelona signed him in a deal that sent Samuel Eto'o the other way. His competitive debut was in the Supercopa de España, where he set up a goal for Lionel Messi, and he scored in each of his first five league games, a club record. Barcelona won La Liga, the Spanish Supercopa, the UEFA Super Cup and the Club World Cup that year.

The Barcelona spell lasted one season. In August 2010 AC Milan signed him on loan, and the club made the deal permanent. Milan won Serie A in 2010–11 and the Supercoppa in 2011, and in 2011–12 he was the league's top scorer again.

Paris: the peak

On 17 July 2012 Paris Saint-Germain announced they had bought him from Milan, in a deal that made him one of the best-paid players in the world. He scored twice in his first league match, against Lorient, and went on to win four straight Ligue 1 titles, finishing as the league's top scorer in three of them.

The record in Marseille

On 4 October 2015, against Marseille, he scored two penalties in a 2–1 win to pass Pauleta as the club's all-time top scorer, a record that stood until Edinson Cavani broke it in 2018. When he announced his departure the following March, he joked that he would only stay if the Eiffel Tower was replaced by a statue of himself.

His last league game for PSG, on 14 May 2016, was a 4–0 win over Nantes in which he scored twice. A week later he scored twice more in the Coupe de France final, and Paris completed a domestic treble.

Manchester United and Los Angeles

He joined Manchester United on a free transfer in 2016 and was given the number 9 shirt. In his first season he became the oldest player to score 15 goals in a single Premier League season. On 26 February 2017 he scored twice in the EFL Cup final against Southampton, a free kick and the winning header in a 3–2 win, and he took the Man of the Match award. He scored a hat-trick against Saint-Étienne in the Europa League. And then, on 20 April 2017, he tore ligaments in his right knee against Anderlecht.

United went on to win the Europa League without him. He returned for one more season at Old Trafford and then moved to the LA Galaxy in MLS, where he was named the league's Newcomer of the Year in 2018 and was in the MLS Best XI in both of his seasons there.

The last act: Milan again

In January 2020 he went back to Milan, and the high point of the second spell came in 2021–22, when the club won Serie A for the first time since his own title there in 2010–11. The title was clinched on the last day of the season, against Sassuolo. He later revealed that he had been playing through an anterior cruciate ligament injury for six months.

He kept playing past 40 and set records for it. In March 2023 he became the oldest goalscorer in Serie A history, at 41 years and 166 days.

The farewell

On 4 June 2023, after Milan's 3–1 win over Hellas Verona in the last match of the season, he took the microphone at the San Siro and announced his retirement at 41. He said afterwards that even his family did not know.

"The time has come to say goodbye to soccer but not to you."

— Zlatan Ibrahimović at the San Siro, 4 June 2023, as reported by ESPN

Sweden

For Sweden he was the centre of attention from his debut in 2001 until his retirement in 2016, and then again briefly in 2021. On 4 September 2014 he scored his 50th international goal against Estonia, passing Sven Rydell's record of 49.

Stockholm, 14 November 2012

The match that will outlive the rest was a friendly. Sweden beat England 4–2 at the new Friends Arena, and Ibrahimović scored all four goals. The last was an overhead kick from 35 yards, with his back to goal. It won the 2013 FIFA Puskás Award.

After Sweden lost the 2014 World Cup play-off to Portugal, he made a remark that sums up the persona.

"One thing is for sure, a World Cup without me is nothing to watch."

— Zlatan Ibrahimović after the 2014 play-off defeat, as quoted in his Wikipedia biography

He announced during Euro 2016 that he would retire from the national team after Sweden's last match there, and Sweden went out in the group stage. He returned in March 2021, when he became the oldest man to play for Sweden and assisted the winner against Georgia, but a knee injury ruled him out of Euro 2020.

The trophies

He won twelve league titles in four countries, plus cups, Super Cups and the Europa League. The one big trophy he never won, in a career spent at several of the continent's biggest clubs, was the Champions League.

Records

Why they remember him

Part of it is the goals, which were often outrageous. Part of it is longevity: he kept playing at a high level well into his forties. And part of it is the voice. He said he was the best, and for long stretches the numbers agreed.

"He's a huge big player that top football, European football is losing now and forever because he will not be back to this level of football."

— José Mourinho on Ibrahimović's departure from Manchester United, as reported by GiveMeSport

Both Milan and PSG have inducted him into their halls of fame.