Back in July last year, Zlatan Ibrahimovic sent the most Zlatan farewell message to Sweden after retiring from their national team.
Earlier that week, the former Paris Saint-Germain striker had announced that he could call time on his international career following Sweden's final game of Euro 2016, and their 1-0 defeat to Belgium turned out to be his final game in the famous yellow.
As expected with Zlatan, he didn't go quietly and soon paid tribute to his nation at the end of an international career which saw him score 62 goals in 116 appearances. He proceeded to write this on Facebook:
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| I came from this place people call "ghetto Rosengård", conquered Sweden and made it my country. My way. I am Sweden. A huge thank you to the Swedish people - without you I would never have been able to fulfill my dreams. You will always be in my blue and yellow heart. I love you. |
18 months after he announced his retirement, rumours of a return to the national team have emerged after he posted the following picture on Twitter, accompanied by the caption: "We are Zweden"
For all we know this might be just Zlatan being Zlatan, but surely the fact he called Sweden 'Zweden' is a huge hint that he could return for the 2018 World Cup in Russia:
Since 2007, Zlatan Ibrahimovic has won the Swedish Player of the Year award every single year - so what better way to celebrate that incredible milestone by returning to the biggest stage of them all in 2018?
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I
came from this place people call "ghetto Rosengård", conquered Sweden
and made it my country. My way. I am Sweden. A huge thank you to the
Swedish people - without you I would never have been able to fulfill my
dreams. You will always be in my blue and yellow heart. I love you.
|
Well, we can all dream of a potential Ibra return. Let's just wait and see if 'Zweden' really happens.
On the subject of Swedish Player of the Year, during last terms acceptance speech for the award, Ibrahimovic said the following: "The guy from Rosengård gets his own statue in the capital of Sweden. You usually get it when you go away, but I still feel alive. The day I go away will you live on forever. So thanks,"
Well, the statue is here and Ibra gave his 21.5 million followers a glimpse: "When you come to New York you have the Statue of Liberty, when you come to Sweden you have the Statue of Zlatan."
It's fair to say Ibrahimovic deserves his award. He is the country's all-time leading scorer with 62 goals, and has played for the likes of Barcelona, Inter Milan, Manchester United, Juventus and Ajax.
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