NOT EVERYBODY IN Sweden is a fan of football, but it’s safe to assume every Swede is familiar with Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
“There’s no person in this country who doesn’t know who Zlatan is. Without a doubt. You would have to be living under a rock for the last 20 years not to know who he is, regardless of whether you like football or not,” insists Johan Orrenius, editor of Swedish football magazine ‘Offside’.
They’re not accustomed to having players of Zlatan’s calibre and character in Sweden. In fact, when it comes to someone so unique, the 34-year-old striker would have distinguished himself in the way that he has over the last 15 years irrespective of where he was born.
Ibrahimovic doesn’t conform to traditional Swedish stereotypes either. A typical Swede is presumed to be modest, reticent and reserved. None of those adjectives could be used to describe the captain of Sweden’s national football team, who was born in Malmo in 1981 to a Bosnian father and a Croatian mother.
In that respect, he is representative of a changing, multi-cultural Sweden, where the younger generations — inspired, to a certain extent, by a remarkable footballer who has represented his country at senior level since 2001 — are redefining Swedish characteristics.
“Maybe it’s a bit of an old stereotype, talking about a typical Swede,” Johan Orrenius explains. “Sweden is a country that has been through a lot of changes over the last 20 years, with immigration and a lot of other things happening politically. It’s not the same country as it once was. If you go to Iceland or Finland, I’m sure they haven’t seen as much change as we have as a country.
“So it’s difficult these days to talk about a typical Swede, but if you did, you would probably talk about somebody who was humble, perhaps a little bit afraid to speak his mind, polite and doesn’t want to cause any fuss. In that way, Zlatan is certainly different.
“But in 2016, there are more and more examples of mini-Zlatans — in their personalities — in sport, music, arts and other areas; people who like to speak their minds and who are possibly influenced by Zlatan in that way too. He was certainly more of an odd figure when he broke through in 2001, compared to where he is today and where Sweden is today.”
According to Orrenius, Ibrahimovic is undoubtedly the country’s most recognisable face and the greatest footballer ever to wear the yellow shirt. And while there are plenty of Swedes in his corner, not everyone is a fan of the often controversial footballer.
“He’s more liked than disliked but, of course, there are divided opinions,” Orrenius says. “Zlatan is by far our most famous person — not just our most famous footballer or athlete. He’s our most famous person without any competition. And that’s not just because of his fantastic football skills, but mostly because of his very, very charismatic personality. Someone who has this personality will always create a lot of opinions that go both ways.
“There are many, many people — particularly young people — who have him as an idol or a role model, and maybe also a lot of them are people who are not very well off. He has become a symbol for them to say, ‘Hey, look what you can do when you believe in yourself’. But there are also, of course, a bunch of people who think he’s too arrogant, that he brags too much and he should be more humble.
“Recently he declared himself a legend at Paris Saint-Germain, which is not a very typically Swedish thing to do. Things like that will always generate comments that he is too full of himself. But people are also used to him now. He’s been like this since 2001 when he first became a big star in Sweden, so we’re not really surprised anymore and maybe the reactions aren’t as big when he says something like that.
“He creates a lot of headlines, sometimes positive, sometimes negative. There was an example last year with a national football team we have for disabled people. They couldn’t afford to go to their World Cup and when Zlatan heard about that he paid for their whole trip, like a personal sponsor. That is one really good thing he has done. But then the next week he can say something really stupid and disrespectful about women’s football. It differs from one week to another with him. You’re never sure what to expect.”
Sweden’s relationship with Ibrahimovic appears not to be dissimilar to Ireland’s take on Conor McGregor. While the elder populace struggle to warm to him, the level of adoration afforded to both sporting superstars increases as you descend the age brackets.
Orrenius: “That is probably true. Of course, you’ll occasionally find a young person who doesn’t like Zlatan and an older person who does, but that’s certainly true in most cases if you want to paint a broad picture. There are still some complaints that he’s not Swedish enough. He doesn’t sing the national anthem before kick-off and some people get upset about that — mostly probably people who are over 60-years-old and male.”
Ibrahimovic hasn’t been exempt from criticism in Sweden when it comes to his contributions on the field either. In spite of his remarkable abilities, he was often castigated for failing to produce his best performances for the national team.
On the club front, Ibrahimovic has represented some of the biggest teams in the world — Barcelona, AC Milan, Inter Milan, Juventus, Ajax and Paris Saint-Germain, winning league titles with each of them — but for a long time Swedes were unhappy that he didn’t deliver on the international stage to the same level he had been doing for his employers.
After violating a team curfew a couple of days before a European Championship qualifier against Liechtenstein in September 2006, Ibrahimovic was left out of the team for the game by manager Lars Lagerback. But he didn’t respond well to the punishment and refused to make himself available for their next two games — against Spain and Iceland.
Ibrahimovic returned for a game against Northern Ireland in March 2007 but he failed to score for the duration of the qualifying campaign. His international goal drought, which had lasted for over two years, eventually came to an end in Sweden’s Euro 2008 opener against Greece.
A turning point for his international career was the arrival of current manager Erik Hamren, who succeeded Lagerback in November 2009. But if Ibrahimovic finally began to fulfil his potential for Sweden, has it come at a cost?
“It’s strange because this discussion was going on as far back as 2006, I believe, when he also didn’t score a single goal at that World Cup. After that there were a lot of discussions about why he wasn’t playing as well for the national team as he was for Juventus and then Inter Milan, as it was at the time,” Orrenius says.
“But when Sweden changed the national team coach in 2009 from Lars Lagerback to Erik Hamren, the big question for Hamren was: ‘How will you be able to get more out of Zlatan?’ That was the main topic. And now we can say for certain that Zlatan, under Hamren, has performed better than ever for the national team. He has scored 40 goals in 52 games under Hamren, which is very, very good for Sweden because we’re not Brazil or Germany. We’re not a great national team so those numbers are good.
“However, at the same time, we have performed less well as a team during these last few years. We didn’t qualify for the last World Cup and, like Ireland, we didn’t do very well at the last Euros. There has been a lot of criticism of the team. So it’s a strange situation. Everyone wanted the coach to get more out of Zlatan, and he actually has, but the rest of the team hasn’t followed.
“The discussion now is kind of the opposite of what it was when Hamren took over. Zlatan has so much responsibility and so much freedom on the pitch, it’s maybe hard for the other players sometimes to match that. He’s such a star and our next best player is probably three levels down.
“It’s an odd situation sometimes with the national team because of that. You have this exceptional player who is the main man but the others then maybe don’t take as much responsibility as they should. Like Ireland, when Sweden has succeeded in the past, it has really been based on a team effort, team spirit and fighting the hell out of the opponents.
“Now we have a situation where we are not as good as a team but we have one player who is maybe the biggest star in the tournament, which is weird for us. It didn’t used to be like that.”
Turning 35 in October, Ibrahimovic is certainly in the twilight of his career but it’s likely that he still has plenty to offer — both on the international stage, where he’ll win his 114th cap tomorrow against the Republic of Ireland at Euro 2016, and at club level, where his next stop looks set to be Manchester United. But what will ultimately be the legacy of this truly gifted footballer, one of the greats of his generation?
“He’ll be remembered as our biggest player ever,” believes Johan Orrenius. “We’ve had good players in the past like Henrik Larsson and others before him, but Zlatan has scored all these goals and played for all these massive clubs.
“He will also be remembered as someone who followed his own path and as somebody who was a symbol that you can do things your own way and still be successful. By believing in yourself, you don’t have to be a stereotype just because you were born in a certain country.”
Well i think most people can understand that, i would back mickey harte to the hilt in any argument against RTE. I heard the skit and was shocked at the time, the guy that did it is just not funny.
Rte are muppets.
I agree with the 2 previous comments. John Murray has a smugness about him that reminds me of his predecessor on Radio 1 who has since gone on to ‘bigger and better things’
Murray is a muppet. His attempts at humour are pathetic. I switch off in the morning as soon as the news is over. Sadly there is a dearth of talent at RTE. Perhaps lowering salaries to appropriate levels might remove the smugness?
John Murray (who makes nice bobs on the side when RTE buy shows; like the recent Charlie Bird excursion to the South Pole, which he was involved in producing), is woefully ill suited to what he is doing now. He’s as funny as a broken leg in a marathon. Like Mooney in the afternoon, his signature tune has me reaching for the next station within nanoseconds.
He is a current affairs man, and that’s it. Des Cahill is a colour reporter, not a snorting ill prepared sports correspondent with stilted delivery and a jarring manner. Pat Kenny is a well briefed incisive and thorough interviewer, who happens to be devoid of spontaneous persona, so they gave him a talk show for eleven years, at the bones of three quarters of a million for each of those years. Tubridy is a vacuous, bubble dwelling non entity, who only came to life in recent times when Fianna Fail were mentioned, and now he’s numero uno, and falling fast. Duffy was a vox pop guy, who was anointed by Gaybo, beyond his talents, and now makes the Lahvline his own personal soapbox, treating callers with sheer bad manners, abruptness, and sighing condescension.
The late Gerry Ryan, who drove me cracked with his on air consumption of any passing foodstuffs, his constant plugs for Harry Crosbie and his other buddies (in exchange for freebies of course), and his arrogance, had, despite all those failings, more charm, and more personality than the whole flippin’ lot put together.
He was probably one of the only on air personalities in that institution, (with the exception of a fair chunk of the news team, Morning Ireland et al.) who wasn’t promoted beyond their station, as it were.
RTE is a living breathing example of the Peter Principle, with a healthy dash of nepotism.
Rte should be shut down
What a choice of song…idiots. What planet are they on. John murrays show is scripted and produced, there’s more than him to blame. And who leaked the contents of the private and confidential letter received by Rte? The postman?! The cleaner?? Professor plum in the library with the candlestick??!
All GAA players should boycott RTE this weekend and send the smug fcukers a clear message.
Ryan, with respect Gerry Ryan most certainly was promoted outside of his own show…secrets, school around the corner, Ryan confidential, operation transformation and on and on. Rte seem to use the same handful of bores to do everything! But leaking a letter and handing a "satirical" script to John Murray of all people to read out??? What planet were they on. Did they think people would turn on the hugely respected Mickey Harte instead of them??? Eejits.
Oh, I quite agree, Jaynie. I wouldn’t be looking at him with rose tinted specs or anything :) I remember The School Around The Corner too!
But my point remains that his bread and butter, the morning slot on 2fm, despite the faults I bored ye all with, had far more individuality attached than John Murray’s efforts.
His producer would want to be…I won’t say what, but as you allude to, there is a large and bloated degree of support behind the guy or gal on the mic, especially and almost exclusively wrt RTE, and it’s ridiculous that none of them had the skill or the cop on to say, “Hang on a second!”
Very insensitive, I’m a Dublin gaa supporter and it’s true to say we are like one big family.its very upsetting what the Harte family and John went through.shame on ya RTE.if I wasn’t going to the game tomorrow I wouldn’t bother watching it on tv.
‘One big ‘family” – when the footballers play Croker is always full (or nearly so) , when the hurlers have a game never more than half full. Lots of ‘family’ members don’t do their duty when the caman is involved.
Mickey Harte has had a tragic year, and in the face of all that stress he still pushes forward his beloved Tyrone to greater heights. The sketch was insensitive for sure, and would understandably have annoyed Harte at this time. It isn’t fair, however, to paint all of RTÉ as ‘muppets’ – this is an organisation made up of many individuals – doing their best and, more often than not, doing a great job. The problem with comment sites like these, I find, is that the negative voice is quite often the only one that bothers with being heard. John Murray is a fine presenter, so is Mooney etc… Not perfect, but who is?
Totally agree with you there, wouldn’t exactly call him a natural! In such bad taste! Did not one person on the team say…hang on a minute…maybe not the best choice of song…oh and probably best not to skit about the private and confidential letter our boss leaked, sorry, I mean received