praizsportsZlatan Ibrahimovic is a retired football player that played for different football clubs but last played for Serie A side, AC Milan and the Sweden National team.
Zlatan has been considered one of the best goal scoring attackers in Europe and his natural instinct to score goals is second-to-none.
He is one of the most well-known strikers in world football. He’s won league titles, scoring record number of goals for teams he played for and gained recognition with fierce goal celebrations.
The 40 year old is one of the most famous and successful Swedish footballers, both at club level as well as for the national team.
His career has spanned over two decades, with Zlatan having won many awards for his achievements.
Not only has he scored over 570 career goals for clubs but he’s also the leading top goal scorer for Sweden.
40 years old, Zlatan has maintained his speed and fitness to play in the Serie A and is the third fastest player in the league.
He follows a strict diet plan which includes practicing Taekwondo daily so that he can stay fit physically and mentally.
The AC Milan forward is one of Sweden’s greatest ever football players, but more so he possesses his own brand of being ‘Ibra’ which is what has made him so unique.
His individuality has set him apart from his competitions, thus putting him atop the Swedish goal scoring leaderboard with the most number of goals ever recorded in international matches.
Early Life
Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s life has been full of success and adventure.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic Birthday
He was born into a family in Malmo, Sweden on October 3rd 1981.
Zlatan’s father (Sefik) was a Muslim while his mother (Jurka Gravic) was a Catholic woman.
The parents were both immigrants to Sweden, they raised their son in the Swedish capital and from a young age Zlatan idolized Ronaldo, he also began playing football at age 6.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic |Club Career
Zlatan Ibrahimovic signed his first official contract with Malmo FF in 1996. Later that year he made the switch to their senior team and went on to score 18 goals in 47 matches for the club.
His ambitions were raised when on 22nd March 2001, Zlatan signed with Ajax for €8.7 million.
An amount that made him one of the expensive transfers in Dutch history at that time.
The veteran striker won his first Erevidise title for the club and scored 5 UCL goals the next season which saw Ajax qualify for the quarter finals of the competition.
Juventus
After a successful four seasons with Ajax, Ibrahimovic signed for Juventus
He quickly became one of the best players in Italy and helped them win their league title during his first season- scoring 16 goals.
Just a season after he helped Juventus to Serie A glory, Zlatan left for Inter Milan in an attempt at redemption after Juve relegated to Serie b due to the Calciopoli scandal.
The 2006-07 season saw Zlatan continue his goal scoring ability, as he bagged 15 goals which helped Inter win the Scudetto.
In addition to that he became Serie A top scorer for first time with 25 goals and won the player of year award consecutively.
Barcelona
In the summer of 2009, Zlatan Ibrahimovic became a Barcelona player for €46 million.
The striker was presented before 60,000 people in barca’s stadium and his introduction couldn’t have gone better with an ovation from the fans.
Zlatan joined Barca on a 5-year deal but he only played one season with them. He fell out with the coach and wasn’t happy.
So he asked for a transfer which was granted and he left the club on loan to join Milan. A year later, after ending up as Serie A top scorer, Milan bought him permanently.
PSG
Zlatan Ibrahimovic signed on for Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) on a three-year deal On July 17, 2012.
His annual salary at the time was €14 million, which meant that he became the second-highest paid footballer at the time; only Lionel Messi made more money per year at Barcelona.
As he had signed on with the club as part of new Qatari owners’ project to make PSG one of the biggest clubs in Europe, he ended up exceeding even their wildest expectations.
The Swedish goal machine helped win twelve titles and also finished as the top-scorer in three consecutive seasons.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic previously had the most goals scored by a PSG player(156) until he was surpassed by his predecessor Edison Cavani.
Manchester United
Free agent Zlatan Ibrahimovic signed with Manchester United later in 2016 after being running down his contract with PSG.
Early into his first season, Ibrahimovic became the oldest player to score 15 competitive goals in the history of the English Premier league.
Zlatan initially agreed a one-year contract extension with Man Utd in 2017, however, he terminated his contract 6 months later to play for LA Galaxy.
Only in his single season at MLS, he broke the club record for most goals scored in a single regular season with 26 goals under his name.
His most memorable match was when he scored the most important goal for LA Galaxy against Colorado Rapids, which got them out of defeat.
AC Milan
AC Milan re-signed Ibrahimovic for another half-year with an option to extend On 27th December 2019.
He signed a 1-year contract extension, in 2020-21, Zlatan became the first Sweden player to score 500 goals in a 4-0 win against Crotone on April 22, 2021.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic | Personal Life
Family
In 2005, Zlatan Ibrahimovic married Elena Segarra and she currently works as a real estate agent in Italy.
Like her husband, she is quite the gym enthusiast and spends hours every day maintaining her body health to make sure she looks great for both her personal and professional life.
Zlatan and Helena’s love story is charming. They first noticed each other when their cars crashed into one another in a parking lot. At the time, Seger was not in the best mood, she yelled at Zlatan.
The unfortunate episode of bumping into each other led to a great love story that has lasted 6 years so far.
The couple have two children together, called Maximiliano and Vincent who were born in 2006 and 2008 respectively.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic Net worth
Ibrahimovic was the highest earner by far among the AC Milan team. He earned $187,000 per week raking in $7.2 million over the course of a year.
The Swedish attacker is listed in the world’s top ten richest footballers in 2024, with a net worth of over $195M.
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