Zlatan Ibrahimovic is in LA now, wowing the U.S. masses with his chutzpah, which reaches such levels of absurdity that it even tests the credulity of Americans. For example, when he was recently asked if he could help the development of sawker in the US, he responded that "I have my wife, I got my two kids. If I was single I would spread my investment here in the US and you would have future legends in the soccer. But sorry I’m already occupied by my wife and two kids".
Arguably the most shameless aspect of the Zlatan story thus far has been his using an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live to try and market his way to the World Cup with Sweden, saying that "a World Cup without me wouldn't be a World Cup". (It's worth noting at this point that Ibra has scored a total zero goals at World Cups).
Ibra retired from international football after Euro 2016, and in his absence, Sweden shocked Italy in a qualification playoff to seal their appearance at the summer's tournament in Russia. Now that Sweden are there, Ibrahimovic evidently wants in.
This patently should not happen, and Karl-Johan Johnsson, a goalkeeper likely to be in the Swedish squad, has summed up exactly why, as the "individualist" Ibrahimovic could disrupt a successful squad.
It's up to the coach to see if he wants to bring him. We managed to qualify and go through to the World Cup without him, and I think we can manage to play well at the World Cup without him. But as I said, it's up to the coach to decide if he wants him to join, and I'm sure if he does join, he will play well.
As a team, we play as a collective, all the players together.
With Zlatan, as a person, as a player he's an individualist, and the play goes around him. Instead, now, we play more with the team all together.
It's a different style of play when you have a player like Zlatan, Cristiano [Ronaldo] or [Lionel] Messi in your team, because they're world-class players, and you have to use those players to win the game and play in a special way.
I don't know if the coach wants such a big change, because he'll have to change the whole system of how he wants to play.
[Goal.com]
