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Zlatan Ibrahimovic ignoring his age

By on November 27, 2014

Zlatan Ibrahimovic wasn’t an early bloomer. Zlatan, as he may put it considering his tendency to refer to himself in third person, only became the Zlatan superstar he is until his mid-twenties. He only joined Ajax, where he kickstarted his career, right before his twentieth birthday, and Juventus, when he was elevated to superstar status somewhere in his stay at the club, three years later. This was certainly one of the most successful times in his career, title wise. In his five seasons in his first stint in Italy, he won Serie A five times, even leading Internazionale, who had failed to win Serie A in seventeen years prior to his arrival, to three consecutive titles, and memorably sealed his first goalscoring title in Italy with a backheel in the final match of the season.

However, speaking of goalscoring, he has become better with age, and moreover, even past most players peak. Ibrahimovic is now 33, but the three years since his thirtieth birthday have been some of the most productive of his career. As a matter of fact in the first time he won the Capocannoniere, he scored 25 goals in 35 league matches, Throughout the rest of his early career, the ratio had been similar. Only in his term at Barcelona did it dip much lower, and that, as he wrote in his autobiography, was down to the fact that Pep Guardiola “neglected”, and mis-managed him. He left Barca after a season, and has only reached bigger heights than he did before.

In the past three seasons, in which he played one at AC Milan and two at Paris Saint-Germain, his goals-per-game ratio has been creeping up on 1-1. Just the past season was the most productive of his career, scoring forty-one goals in all competitions, his most ever in a single season, in just forty-five games, his best goals-per-game ratio as well. Of course, this is may be partly attributed to the fact that he is Zlatan, playing at Paris Saint-Germain, and both are far above the average level of football in the French Ligue 1. And nor does that explain the fact that he doesn’t run up the scoreline as much as you think, and also scored ten goals in eight Champions League appearances, or his record for Sweden. Ibrahimovic really is keeping himself in top form, especially for a forward, late on in his career, at a time when many other forwards would take a step down or even retire altogether.

It helps him that he is not your typical forward, though, at 1.95 meters tall (6′ 5 ”). In fact, his build may give him an advantage over shorter strikers, who would need to maintain better fitness to keep fast. He has always had a taste for the spectacular, and hasn’t lost it. The Swede may even be best with his back to goal, as illustrated in his goal against Ajax midweek. Or, as he may put it – Zlatan is still Zlatan, though now, even better.

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.