📸 Zlatan Ibrahimović, Sweden footballer: Photo Gallery (Photo: 10)

Zlatan Ibrahimović is a Swedish former professional footballer who played as a striker. He is known for his acrobatic strikes and volleys, technique, ball control, and physical dominance. Ibrahimović is regarded as one of the greatest strikers of all time and is one of the most decorated footballers in the world, having won 34 trophies in his career. He scored over 570 career goals, including more than 500 club goals, and scored in four consecutive decades between the 1990s and the 2020s.

Ibrahimović began his senior career with Malmö FF in 1999 before joining Ajax in 2001, where he won two Eredivisie titles. His emergence as a promising young player earned him a transfer to Italian club Juventus in 2004. In 2006, he joined Inter Milan, winning three consecutive Serie A titles, before making a high-profile move to Barcelona in 2009. He returned to Italy with AC Milan after a single season and won the Serie A title in his first season. In 2012, he joined French club Paris Saint-Germain, where he helped establish the club's domestic dominance, winning four consecutive Ligue 1 titles, finishing as the top scorer in Ligue 1 on three occasions, and becoming PSG's all-time leading goalscorer at the time of his departure. During Ibrahimović's time in Italy and France, he won the Serie A Footballer of the Year and the Ligue 1 Player of the Year three times each.

In 2016, Ibrahimović joined Manchester United on a free transfer, re-uniting with José Mourinho and winning the EFL Cup and UEFA Europa League in his first season. After recovering from a serious knee injury, Ibrahimović joined MLS club LA Galaxy in March 2018. In the United States, he earned multiple individual accolades and was frequently mentioned in media. In January 2020, he returned to AC Milan and played a key role in reviving the Italian club, winning his fifth Serie A title in 2022. He announced his retirement at the end of the 2022–23 season.

Ibrahimović is one of eleven players to have made 100 or more appearances for the Sweden national team, over a 20-year international career. He is the country's all-time leading goalscorer with 62 goals. He represented Sweden at the 2002 and 2006 FIFA World Cups, as well as the 2004, 2008, 2012, and 2016 UEFA European Championships. He has been awarded Guldbollen (the Golden Ball), given to the Swedish player of the year, a record 12 times, including 10 consecutive from 2007 to 2016. Ibrahimović's 35-yard bicycle kick goal for Sweden against England won the 2013 FIFA Puskás Award and is considered one of the best goals of all time. He has scored other memorable goals, most notably in the European Championships.

Ibrahimović was named in the FIFA FIFPro World XI in 2013 and the UEFA Team of the Year in 2007, 2009, 2013, and 2014. He finished at a peak of fourth for the FIFA Ballon d'Or in 2013. In 2015, UEFA included him as one of the best players that have not won the UEFA Champions League, while in 2019, FourFourTwo magazine named him the sixth-greatest player never to win the competition. In December 2014, Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter ranked him the second-greatest Swedish sportsperson ever, after tennis player Björn Borg. Off the field, Ibrahimović is known for his brash persona and outspoken comments, which often involve talking about himself in the third person. He has attained cult status among football fans, in equal parts due to his generational talent and charisma.