Updated at 16.47
Ending weeks of speculation, the Swedish football federation announced today that star striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who quit the national squad in 2016, will not make a comeback for the World Cup in Russia.
“I spoke with Zlatan on Tuesday. He said that he has not changed his mind regarding the national squad,” the managing director of the national squad, Lars Richt, said in a statement after the player dropped numerous hints of a possible return.
“It’s a no,” Richt added.
In an appearance on ABC television’s late night Jimmy Kimmel show on 18 April, the new star of LA Galaxy teased fans that he may come out of retirement to play in Russia.
Known for his swagger, Zlatan said “it wouldn’t be a World Cup” if he didn’t play, adding: “I’m going to the World Cup, yes.”
The 36-year-old who last played at a World Cup with Sweden in 2006, retired from the Swedish team after the 2016 European Championship.
He said last month he wanted to concentrate on settling into his new life in Major League Soccer before thinking about the World Cup.
Following an injury-blighted stay at Manchester United, the father of two became the latest in a long line of ageing stars to leave European football for the United States.
The 6ft 4ins (1.95m) striker tweeted on 15 April: “The chance of me playing in the World Cup is skyhöga (sky high).”
He later told Swedish media that “high odds — that doesn’t mean it’s going to happen.”
Ibrahimovic had just weeks earlier become a global brand ambassador for Swedish betting company Bethard, prompting some Swedish commentators to lament that his World Cup teasing was nothing more than an advertising gimmick.
It feels like the whole thing was just aimed at building up his brand in the US and it even seemed at times like he thought it was funny,” Daniel Nannskog, a commentator for Swedish public broadcaster SVT, said.
- ‘Doesn’t change anything’-
At home in Sweden, Ibrahimovic’s possible World Cup return has elicited mixed reactions.
Sweden coach Janne Andersson has been coolly indifferent.
“It doesn’t change anything for me,” he said last month.
Zlatan is very welcome to call me” if he wants to join the squad, Andersson added.
Richt declined to specify whether the team had asked Ibrahimovic to join.
He “has always said that he won’t play and he quit the national team,” Richt told AFP.
Some Sweden fans would love nothing more than to see the country’s most prolific goal-scorer — he notched 62 goals in 116 games — don the blue-and-yellow kit again.
But others argue he has no place on a squad that managed to qualify without him, memorably eliminating World Cup giants Italy in a playoff.
Ibrahimovic has 31 winners’ medals in spells with Ajax, Inter Milan, Barcelona, AC Milan, Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester United.
But his 2017 season and ultimately his United career was brought to a premature end by cruciate ligament damage suffered in April.
He never returned as a regular in the United side.
In trademark style, he announced his arrival in Los Angeles with a full-page advert in the LA Times reading simply: “Dear Los Angeles, You’re welcome.”
However, his salary will be limited to around $1.5 million (€1.2 million), a fraction of what he was paid by United.
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Now maybe the rest of sports clubs can follow suit for a few weeks. Show a bit of solidarity.
@Splat: the GAA ate only doing it because their supporters can’t behave themselves. Rugby and football (not Gaelic) supporters would have more respect for everyone
@Mattress Dick: *are
@Mattress Dck: I refuse to call football ‘soccer’ btw. Feel dirty just typing it
@Mattress Dick: agree. Football is football. GAA is Gaelic Football or GAA
@Mattress Dick: Soccer Hooligans might flow off the tongue better.
@Mattress Dick: it’s football in England. It’s soccer in Ireland. We have our own football
@John kane: not really, maybe outside of our biggest city. In Dublin football means the one where only one player can use their hands and the rest have to use their feet.
The other one is footrug!
@Mattress Dick: it is called both football and soccer in Ireland and elsewhere.
If someone told me they play football I’d have to clarify which one they meant.
@Mattress Dick: The proper name for the game is Association Football. From the word association came the name soccer. In the 60s and 70s it was called soccer widely including in England. There was a magazine/annual called Soccer. The new fangled infatuation with the term football being the only proper term is just that, an infatuation! Many clubs had the abbreviation AFC after their names to show the were Association Football Clubs! Rugby is properly called Rugby Football and few enough players kick the ball. American football often refer to their players as footballers and only two players, the kicker and punter kick the ball! For many people, soccer is just a term to differentiate which form of football is being played!