Zlatan Ibrahimovic is again in worldwide soccer after almost 5 years away — and he introduced it to the world in his personal inimitable manner on Tuesday.
“The return of the God,” the charismatic striker stated to his tens of thousands and thousands of followers throughout social media after being picked by Sweden on the age of 39 for the crew’s upcoming World Cup qualifiers.
Ibrahimovic, Sweden’s file scorer with 62 targets in 112 video games, retired from worldwide obligation after the 2016 European Championship however has remained prolific in spells at Manchester United, Los Angeles Galaxy, and AC Milan since then.
In November, at a ceremony the place he was voted as Sweden’s males’s participant of the 12 months for the twelfth time in his profession, Ibrahimovic advised Sweden coach Janne Andersson he could be inquisitive about returning to the nationwide crew. After extra talks, Andersson selected to recall the nation’s most high-profile participant.
For the second, Ibrahimovic is again on the worldwide scene solely till the continent-wide Euros scheduled for June and July this 12 months. It stays to be seen whether or not he stays on till the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, when he could be 41.
“The team I have now, we have built up a way to work and a way to play for 4 1/2 years, so now he is a new person in this,” Andersson stated. “He is likely one of the gamers who shall be with us for the primary time subsequent week so he’s coming into us.
“And, of course, he has to adapt to how we work, how we play. He has done that before, he has changed clubs before several times … I don’t think that’s a problem, in any way.”
In the one main championship since Ibrahimovic retired from internationals, Sweden reached the quarterfinals of the 2018 World Cup in Russia — its greatest efficiency within the competitors since 1994.
Andersson’s crew is tough working and a well-drilled unit, the place no single participant is the star. Previously, Sweden’s entire recreation plan centered round Ibrahimovic.
Andersson dismissed issues that Ibrahimovic’s ego may very well be a distraction within the squad.
“I’m not worried at all about that,” he stated. “We have talked about this in fact, me and Zlatan. He is the individual he’s and he must be the individual he’s, in a method.
“But he is also an excellent football player with a lot of experience we can use in the team. … We have talked, of course, about how we will work together and how we work in the national team and what he can add to that with his way of playing. I am sure it will be good.”
Andersson laughed off Ibrahimovic’s usually brash social-media submit signaling his return to the squad.
“It’s the way Zlatan sometimes makes announcements,” he stated. “That’s Zlatan.”
Sweden’s upcoming video games are World Cup qualifiers in opposition to Georgia on March 25 and Kosovo three days later. There can be a pleasant in opposition to Estonia on March 31.
If Ibrahimovic performs in any of them, he’ll change into the oldest participant within the historical past of Sweden’s nationwide crew.
He has 16 targets in 21 appearances for Milan this season, although he has missed the crew’s final 4 matches due to a proper thigh harm.
“Zlatan is still one of the world’s best forwards and is, in my opinion, by far Sweden’s best football player of all time,” Andersson stated. “He has a lot of experience that we in the national team will enjoy.”
Sweden is in the identical group as Spain, Poland and Slovakia on the Euros.
