The world loves controversial characters. And the media world loves such people with an intensity and passion, fueling the fire to give the public “what it wants”. Be it for the purpose of having a pantomime-villain to take aim at, or someone to follow their constant stream of compelling words and behaviour and ultimately revere them for it.
This is the digital age, a far cry from the days when you’d hear about a film star’s antics merely as a headline in a newspaper, a rockstar’s dalliances via a report on College-radio or Diego Maradona’s questionable lifestyle off the pitch on the mean streets of Naples. No, the world has changed in that respect and there’s no turning back. These people, our idols, who us civilians love to love or in some cases, love to hate, are EVERYWHERE. The internet has changed the landscape of the media, and, in-turn, of peoples’ lives. Twitter, Facebook and all other manner of social-media has brought our heroes (albeit via proxy of cyberspace) into our living rooms and onto our phones and laptops.
With regards to footballing heroes, those worshiped and vilified in equal measure, in the modern game, few characters cut such a colourful, stark, controversial, yet arguably compellingly brilliant figure than Sweden Captain and Paris Saint Germain goal-scoring hero, Zlatan Ibrahimovic. The poster-child for wild and outrageous footballing brilliance, coupled with a thirst for controversy and self-professed brilliance!
So whilst on the topic of football and heroes, what better picture-book reference to focus on than the World Cup play-off 2 leg encounter between Sweden and Portugal. Two games that would decide the fate of a nation and its football crazy supporters. And excitingly a game billed by the media as “Ronaldo Vs Zlatan”. Whilst it was perhaps not overly respectful to discard the talents and efforts of the other players of each respective national side, in the end, that particular billing proved to be very accurate both in terms of the players’ wonderful performances over both legs and the end result.
Not only were the stakes intensely high, but the game billed by many as a battle between Ronaldo and Ibrahimovic had lit the touch paper for a lot of mutual respect and “trash talk”, mainly from the lips of the not so shy Zlatan. Both inspirational heroes for their respective nations. With 48 goals and seven hat-tricks between them (so far this 2013/14 season) going into the games, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Cristiano Ronaldo had arguably been European football’s form players season. Dazzling fans and leaving opponents a desolate mess. The prospect of this duo doing battle in a gladiatorial type scenario, was mouth-watering and true to form, it did not disappoint!
Ibrahimovic, a man never one to shy away from blowing his own trumpet or make a controversial statement had been speaking to anyone who’d listen about the upcoming encounter;
“With the squad and the individuals they have, Portugal are naturally the favourites”
“I think we deserve to go to Brazil more than they do”
“When I go onto the pitch, I give you people magic. I’m not saying that I am some kind of God, but I was certainly born with more genes than the average person and those of you who don’t recognize that now, certainly will by the time I hang up my boots, you’ll miss me.”
Portugal led 1 goal to nil going into the 2nd and final leg in Sweden. The game sparked into life when Ronaldo put Portugal into the lead with a superb angled drive. Ibrahimovic stuck to the script by putting Sweden back into contention on the night with a free header. The Swede then sprinkled more magic into the cold night air by lashing in a sublime freekick. Just as the hosts felt an unlikely comeback was on, the mercurial Ronaldo scored a quickfire double, notching himself a hat-trick and sending Portugal through to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Leaving Sweden fans heartbroken and depriving the World of seeing the wondrous talents of Ibrahimovic strut his stuff on the biggest stage that football has to offer. Within the space of 29 minutes, the ball had found it’s way into the net 5 times and the tie was decided.
Throughout the years, football has gifted the world with a multitude of characters. Of course some, whose legacy is based more on infamy live long in the memory, but the likes of Maradona, who trod a controversial path, yet still managed to create moments of genius, having a decorated career in the process, are judged (mostly) fondly by history.
Never backwards in coming forwards, Ibrahimovic is a journalists wet-dream, a “rent-a-quote, go-to-guy”, A ROCKSTAR!
“Only God knows… You’re talking to him now.”
“One thing is for sure, a World Cup without me is nothing to watch so it is not worthwhile to wait for the World Cup.”
“Come to my house and you’ll see if I’m gay. And bring your sister.”
“An injured Zlatan is a pretty serious thing for any team.”
“We are looking for an apartment [in Paris]. If we don’t find anything, then I’ll probably just buy the hotel.”
Prodigiously gifted, quick to inform the world of his obvious talents, with a propensity to refer to himself in the third-person, Ibrahimovic continues to capture the imagination of fans all over the globe, not just for his box-office style skills as a shameless self-promoter and skilled orator, but equally, if not MORE importantly for his exploits on the football pitch!
People love and loathe an ego-driven, entertaining, walking continent of confidence “Superstar” in equal measure. But when that said person consistently churns out the goods, be it on the silver-screen, on the airwaves with beautiful music, or, in Zlatan’s case, on the football pitch, you almost feel duty-bound to let all that slide into insignificance and champion them for making the world that little bit more colourful.
The world loves and NEEDS characters and Zlatan Ibrahimovic is most certainly that!
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