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Zlatan Ibrahimović (Swedish pronunciation)] (born October 3, 1981 in Malmö,
Skåne County, Sweden) is a Swedish striker currently playing for Juventus,
in Italy.
Born to a family of immigrants from Bijeljina in Bosnia-Herzegovina (Bosniak
father Šefik and Croat mother Jurka Ibrahimović), Zlatan grew up in
Rosengård, a Malmö neighbourhood heavily populated by immigrants. He started
playing football at the age of 10. His initial club was called FBK Balkan
and consisted mostly of immigrants from the Rosengård neighbourhood.
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Later, Ibrahimović started professional football with the Swedish club Malmö
FF in the 1999-2000 season. During his stay at the club, Arsène Wenger tried
to persuade him to join Arsenal but Malmö did not allow a transfer to occur.
Other than Wenger, Leo Beenhakker was also interested in Ibrahimović after
observing the striker practicing in Spain. Beenhakker went back to Amsterdam
and on March 22, 2001, a deal between Ajax and Malmö regarding Ibrahimović's
transfer to Amsterdam was announced and in July of the same year, he joined
Ajax for €7.8 million.
Under manager Co Adriaanse, Ibrahimović received little exposure. His
fortune started to change with the arrival of Ronald Koeman. Since Koeman's
arrival, Ibrahimović had consistently been chosen in Ajax's starting lineup.
On August 31, 2004, the final day of the summer transfer window, Ibrahimović
moved from Ajax to Juventus for a €19 million transfer fee. Near the end of
the Serie A season, where he scored 16 goals and earned a starting spot to
the disadvantage of Juves longtime captain Alessandro Del Piero, Juve
reportedly rejected a €70 million bid for him from Spanish power Real
Madrid. This later proved to be nothing more than a PR stunt initiated by
Ibrahimović's agent in order to raise his market value. Nonetheless, he is
generally considered to be one of the world's top football talents and was
voted the player of the season in 2004/05 by the fans of Juventus.
Zlatan was nominated to the 2005 FIFA world player of the year along with
thirty other top players. He finished as number eight.
On November 14, 2005 he was awarded Guldbollen, a prize given to the best
Swedish footballer of the year.
In 1999, at the age of seventeen, Zlatan was reportedly rejected by the
Bosnia and Herzegovina national football team and was given a choice to play
for the B selection. He rejected this proposal and started playing for
Sweden. This has been denied by Ibrahimovic himself. In an interview with
Swedish paper expressen he said "I've only been to Bosnia once with dad,
when I was eight years old. When I was a junior someone from the Bosnian
federation asked me if I wanted to join a tour with the development team. I
had no desire to do so. I had already played with the Swedish U-18 team. I
was born and raised in Sweden. It's my home country."
Due to his mixed ethnic background he potentialy had three national teams to
choose from. In addition to his country of birth, he could have played for
Bosnia or Croatia.
On certain occasions, Zlatan has expressed his desire to play for the Bosnia
and Herzegovina national football team. In an interview for Bosnian
newspaper Dnevni avaz Sport [2] in 2003, he said "I have Swedish passport,
Bosnian blood. I am aware of the fact that the Swedes would not let me go
but if I was in a position to choose, I would most certainly play for
Bosnia-Herzegovina."
However, in the fall of 2005 as Sweden was getting ready to play a deciding
World Cup 2006 qualifier against Croatia in Zagreb, he stated in Croatian
media that playing for either Bosnia or Croatia were never plausible options. |
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ZLATAN IBRAHIMOVIC PICTURES |
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ADDITIONS
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