So… You know what upsets me? No one knows Zlatan…. People rave about how long his career was… but then… act like it all started at Juventus… When, really, he had been playing since 1999… since way before Figo betrayed Barcelona, before Ronaldo O Fenomeno got injured, even before Mourinho got his first job… Most fans don’t realize this, but by 2004… No decent club wanted to sign Zlatan… Even though he had a Ballon D’Or nomination to his name… His career was in the toilet… being forced to choose between signing for Southampton or staying at a club that hated him… all because he quite literally took one step… in the wrong direction… You see, as good as that Ajax team was, it was every man for himself… every young player was willing to stab the next one in the back just to be the new Ajax star boy… and according to Zlatan that’s exactly what Rafael Van Der Vaart did to him… On the 18th of August 2004, with the Netherlands facing Sweden and the two teammates going head to head… Zlatan seemed a bit off, and 4 minutes in, as he tried to force his way towards goal… he stepped on… and broke Van Der Vaart’s ankle… but as his teammate rolled around on the floor pleading for help, Zlatan merely walked away celebrating his team’s goal… and as he did the commentator of that match reflected the feelings of everyone in Amsterdam: “What a punchable face… What a despicable guy… I truly wish him the worst”.
. . and that… was before Van Der Vaart made it his goal to convince everyone that Zlatan had injured him on purpose… No matter how many times Zlatan called him wishing him the best… how many times he apologized… Van Der Vaart never stopped gunning for him… and suddenly, the two were sitting in a meeting with the club’s board… with Zlatan yelling at the top of his lungs that “If you ever accuse me of doing that again, I’ll break both your legs so you’ll have a real reason to whine”.
. . which given the fact that director Louis Van Gaal hated Zlatan… was enough of an excuse to pretty much throw him out, ordering him to find a new club… Let me tell you this was no joke… a year earlier, Van Der Meyde fell out with the board and ended up at Everton… the year before that, Mido did the same and ended up at Middlesbrough… and these guys were precisely Zlatan’s two closest friends in the team… had he had any other agent, I don’t doubt we could have truly seen him lining up besides Peter Crouch at Southampton… but thankfully for him… his right hand man was a master of the dark arts, the one and only, the infamous Mino Raiola… Being responsible for bringing Neved to Juventus three years earlier, he used every bit of influence he had to damn near drag every Juventus’ scout to the Cruyff Arena, no matter how many times they told him a street punk like Ibra wasn’t even fit to shine the boots of Del Piero or Trezeguet… and so, 4 days after the dreaded stomp, Zlatan played the most important match of his career… As Zlatan stepped onto the pitch, with waves of insults rushing down from the stands and the scouts prepared to offer him the thumbs down, he was supposed to feel like a gladiator walking towards his death… but, instead, being who he is… he felt like the lion… and so even when, 12 minutes in, he scored, only to find that the stadium remained strangely silent… he kept going and as the game approached its end… he faked a shot to one side, then faked it to the other… and then again, again and again… to score and force every single fan off their seat… except for one… as the commentators drafted comparisons to Maradona and Zidane, as the Juve scouts picked their jaws off the floor… Van Der Vaart sat there like a statue… defeated… About an hour later, Zlatan came out and a reporter said to him: “A lot of people don’t understand you… 4 days ago you played one way, but today you seemed so easy, so relaxed, you played so well, at times it’s like it’s your twin brother on the pitch… There are so many Zlatans… But who is the real Zlatan?
”. . .
and so came the famous words: “There is only one Zlatan”. . .
but as much as only days later, he’d be leaving for Juventus, as much as he’d get lucky enough for Trezeguet to go out injured, opening the way for him to become the best striker in Italy, swiping every award a year later as rumors of world record transfer to Real Madrid did the rounds … looking back now, having read so much about his life… it’s hard not to feel like that reporter was right… There is indeed more than one Zlatan, there’s a man beneath the mask… as Aristotle said: “Give me the child and I will show you the man”. . .
and truly the further you go back in time, the more his mask starts to slip… As a star, with the tapes rolling, when they asked Zlatan about his life, he said that “God sent him to Rosengard to play football”. . .
but in reality, his origins had nothing of great or glorious… much to the contrary… being Zlatan was always… very lonely… At age 2, his parents got divorced and while his dad got custody of his only full sibling, his sister Sanela… Zlatan had to go live with his mom where, for a while, he was raised by a half sister with a drug problem , while his mom was in jail for shoplifting… And somehow, even then, living with his dad was worse… so much so that eventually, Zlatan sacrificed himself, taking the place of Sanela, so she could come live with the rest of his sisters… And once there, all he had waiting for him was an empty fridge and a dad who ever since he had been forced to flee the war in Bosnia, had been drowning his trauma one beer can at a time… With no one to watch him, Zlatan would spend half his time on the streets and the rest sitting on the couch, watching Bruce Lee, Sylvester Stallone and Muhammad Ali on the television… and over time they became his father figures… which explains a lot… Looking for some place where he’d belong, Zlatan hopped from one local youth club to the other, but it only made him feel more alone, as he once said: “I’m sick of all the bla bla bla, the “I always knew Zlatan was special”. . .
when really, back then, everywhere I went, all I heard was: “who let the brown kid in? ””. .
. and even once at Malmo, no one wanted to deal with the foreign kid with the attitude problem… it got to the point where the parents literally made a petition to kick him out, because they didn’t like that he kept swearing in front of their children… it was absurd… Zlatan and those kids lived in the same town, but in completely different worlds… While they got driven to training, Zlatan rode a bike… and when his bike got stolen, he learned to pick locks and then he was the one stealing them… still, as resilient as he was, it became common for him to just… disappear… he was tired of school, tired of everything… he kept threatening to leave it all behind and just go work at the docks… Hadn’t it been for a coach demanding they got him a contract, telling everyone that as hard as he was to deal with, “they couldn’t all be a bunch of pretty boys”. .
. he might have really ended up there, just like everyone always thought he would… but thankfully that changed everything… That bit of paper made it real, for once Zlatan felt that he actually stood a chance… and so he promised himself he would work 5 times harder than any of the rich kids… but, two years later, once he made it… the timing was… I’m not even sure what to say… Zlatan debuted for Malmo, maybe the biggest club in Sweden, precisely in the match that confirmed their relegation after 64 years at the top… Any talented kid with a head on his shoulders would have betrayed them and joined one of their rivals… but the night before, director Hasse Borg had begged Zlatan to stay… of course, this wouldn’t have meant much, if not for the fact that Borg treated him like his own child, he was one of the few people Zlatan ever truly trusted, so… he decided he would save the club… After less than a handful of late match appearances, the fans were already in love… every match, they chanted his name so loud that, no matter how much some of his teammates resented him, claiming that he was selfish, that “at times it’s like he doesn’t even see us, he’s not as star yet, but he surely thinks he is”, the manager had no choice but to bring him in… and for a while, he seemed unstoppable… until he got figured out… When Zlatan faced Djurgarden, he was sent off for smacking a center back with his elbow… in the end that same player, Eriksson-Ohlsson exposed his secret: “when he gets angry, when he gets annoyed, he can’t play… so that was it, all match I messed with his head and the moment he hit me, I knew we had won the match”. .
. From there on out, every game was the same, the fans began losing their patience and the headlines made the most of it “What is madman Zlatan going to do next? ”.
. . suddenly, he was the most hated player in the league…they called him “The Superettan Super Diva”.
. . and you really could see what they meant… Even when Arsene Wenger himself came knocking, inviting him over to the Emirates, gifting him an Arsenal shirt with his name on it and everything… you know what Zlatan replied when they asked him to stay over for a trial?
He said: “Zlatan doesn’t do auditions”. . .
There was no denying that his ego was getting in the way of his game… but that time, his father was actually useful… He repeatedly told Zlatan that “you’re not someone until you’re known all across Europe” and that hit him, but instead of backing down and acting more humble, he owned it, he went above and beyond and then his ego was like a shield if everyone was focused on his theatrics, they couldn’t see what was really bothering him… they couldn’t get to him and suddenly, he became more consistent, he dragged Malmo up the table and by the end of the year, not only had they gotten promoted back to the top tier… but he had been called up to the swedish national team… where this duality was more evident than ever… if in front of the cameras, Zlatan claimed they “should have called him up earlier”, that he “would have won them the Euros”. . .
in his autobiography he admitted that he didn’t even have the guts to talk to guys like Henrik Larsson, that when he first entered the stadium, he “sank down onto the bench and felt like a little boy”. . .
Regardless, in the span of a year, his exposure had skyrocketed, suddenly his name was making the rounds, from one mouth to the other… and when it reached Amsterdam, knowing Capello’s Roma was already on it, they sent over a scout and before the game had even started, he had already called back, telling them to sign the kid… he had only watched him warm up… and the worst is that everyone at the club agreed… as their technical director would say: “the president kept asking me if I was sure, that it was a lot of money for a complicated guy…I told him that asking me how I knew that Zlatan would succeed was like asking a man why he fell in love with his woman… You just know”. . .
A few weeks later, out of nowhere, the deal was closed… 8. 7 million euros made Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the most expensive Swedish player in history and Ajax’s all time record signing… but before that, there were a few more months to play in Sweden and it was time to take revenge on Djurgarden… Once again, their defensive trio had been in the newspapers, claiming they had Zlatan all figured out… but unfortunately for them, as Eriksson-Ohlsson would explain it, himself: “He made us look dumb… all 3 of us… he could have made a simple pass to the right, but instead he chose to go past us… he wanted to teach us a lesson”. .
. he wanted to show them that now, no one could get to him… However, as much as it may have felt like he had made it… “the next Marco Van Basten” was in for another ride… because if there was one thing he didn’t expect to find at Ajax… was someone even crazier than him… but ironically, on that very same month, they signed another young, talented and absolutely unhinged striker, Mido… and the media was salivating, waiting for the day the two clashed fighting for a place in the starting eleven… but instead… they loved each other… the one Zlatan didn’t like too much was Co Addrianse… The weeks passed and he could see he was being left behind, while Mido got more and more minutes, the manager wouldn’t even talk to Zlatan… he felt more and more alone, always in his apartment, calling up his family and friends back in Sweden… and the strangest of all, he was broke… sure, buying a convertible Mercedes right after landing in Amsterdam wasn’t the best financial decision, but once he ended up crashing at Maxwell’s apartment because he didn’t even have enough money to buy groceries, they realized something was wrong… he had gotten no bonuses off of his transfer and even his wage was strangely normal for a footballer… At one point, Zlatan felt so lost, he called Hasse Borg, hoping he could help him, after all he had acted as his agent throughout the whole deal… but Borg started acting a bit strange… and suddenly it all hit Zlatan at once and after a bit of digging… he figured it out… the man he trusted most had betrayed him, getting him to sign off on a ridiculous contract, so that Malmo could get even more money from his sale… If Zlatan was already struggling mentally by then r, this left him dangling off the edge… even though then he would score a couple goals in the UEFA Cup, even a decisive one against Feyennord, it never seemed like enough and 10 matches in, he finally lost it… striking a player with his elbow, receiving a 5 match ban and sending the media into a frenzy… Only a couple months after his arrival they were already asking him if his future was with the club… he replied: “Do you expect me to die tomorrow… I’m 20 years old, I have all the time in the world, of course I'm staying at Ajax”. .
. but really it was getting to a point where it might not be his choice anymore… Even though then Co Addrianse got the sack, Ronald Koeman came in and Mido got banned twice in the space of a month just as Zlatan got done serving his time… not even a brace on Koeman’s debut was enough to change his luck… Koeman’s opinion of Zlatan was not much different than that of the man before him… and as the season approached its end… there it was… the question came and Koeman answered: “In terms of sheer quality, Zlatan might be our best player, but you need more than that to be Ajax’s number 9 and I doubt he can achieve that”. .
. The next day, the headlines were everywhere: “Zlatan is on the transfer list”. .
. Honestly, at that point, there wasn’t much he could do to save himself… but then with Ajax going into extra time in the final of the Dutch Cup and the golden goal rule still very much in place… Zlatan emerged from the bench to deliver the decisive strike… it was only his 9th goal all year, but as Koeman euphorically ran onto the pitch, I’m guessing he decided it was worth it to give the kid one more season and that might have been the best decision he ever made… The next year, with Litmanen back at the club, combining with Zlatan like they had known each other for decades, while back in training, he now had none other than Marco Van Basten himself as his own 1 on 1 striker’s coach… How could he ever fail? 5 matches into the season, you could already see the shift, suddenly it was Mido who was being put on the bench so that he could shine… and if back when the roles were reversed, Zlatan had managed to swallow his pride and march on… Mido could not do the same and after publicly announcing his desire to leave the club, he pretty much opened the way up for Zlatan to take over for good… getting to start in front as Ajax made it back to the Champions League, not only scoring twice, but making sure that first of those was incredible enough that for the first time since he had arrived at the club, the entire stadium chanted his name… Then came goals against Rosenborg, Valencia and Roma… just enough to keep the manager happy… right up till the moment that Mido set everything on fire… 5 days after playing Roma, Ajax were demolished by PSV and after the final whistle, Mido, upset that he had been benched for most of the game, started shouting at everyone in the dressing room that they weren’t man enough to win the match… and, precisely as he reached down to cut off the straps around his ankles… Zlatan bit back, telling him to shut up and in a second, the scissors flew across the room, missing Zlatan’s face by an inch… The next day, no matter if the two were back to being best friends… Koeman had made his decision… “Everyone can make mistakes, but not that kind… that is pure madness”.
. . Mido was out of the team… And just as his career descended towards absolute mediocrity, Zlatan went in the complete opposite direction… 14 goals in 15 consecutive matches, a great performance against Milan even with Maldini and Nesta on his back and by October… having fired his old agent after he supposedly “made a mess in his pants after I took him for a drive in my Porsche 911 Turbo”.
. . Zlatan heard of this other guy who acted like “a real life mafioso” and hired him on the spot… Mino Raiola made him sell his Porsche, his jewelry and everything that could distract him, told him to his face that he was “a nobody”, that “his stats were crap” and sent him off to work… Suddenly, it was no longer Zlatan on the back of the shirt… It was Ibrahimovic… and it was to make the family proud… By late november, he was on 12 goal contributions in 11 league matches, Ajax were top of the table and Zlatan had earned a nomination to the Ballon D’Or… and though right then, an injury would keep him sidelined for 3 months… No matter what, by the end of the year, as Ajax reclaimed the league trophy, he had outscored every single one of his teammates… and earned himself a call up to the Euros where two matches in, as he scored a Puskas worthy acrobatic back heel to tie the match against Italy with minutes left on the clock and secure their place in the knockouts… he had hit a whole new high… and one thing is sure, even if 2 months later, one wrong step almost sent him back towards the depths of hell… as he wrote in his book: “to all the kids who were singled out for the wrongs reason… It’s okay not to take the same path as everyone else… After all, things worked out for me in the end”.
. .
