People are just realising what Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s name means… and it’s very appropriate
ZLATAN IBRAHIMOVIC has retired from football after a proud 24-year career.
The former Man Utd star, 41, was one of the finest players of his generation and bid a tearful farewell to AC Milan fans last weekend.
The Swede would overcome a hellish upbringing to impress for every club he played for and become his country’s top goalscorer.
Ibrahimovic was brought up on a deprived housing estate in Malmo, where his Croat mother Jurka would beat him over the head with a wooden spoon until sometimes it broke.
Then she would order him to go and buy another one.
After his mum was arrested for handling stolen good, he was sent to live with his father Sefik.
However, his dad, would drink heavily in trauma at the onset of the war in the Balkans.
The young Zlatan would often arrive home to find food scarce and a fridge packed with beer, then run to his mother’s in order to eat.
Yet when the two parents named him in 1981, it was almost as if they’d had a premonition as to what he would achieve and the personality he would develop.
Zlatan was, throughout his career, known as probably the biggest ego in football.
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But a sizeable ego would be required of anybody wanting to live up to a name that means ‘Golden’ in his parents’ native Serbo-Croatian.
And that’s exactly what he has done, joining the likes of Brazilians Ronaldo and Neymar in having one of the most famous first names in football.
Upon finding out the news, one fan tweeted: “Zlatan means golden in Slavic languages. A very fitting name.”
And another wrote: “Just learned that Zlatan means golden. Bet myself to name my kid Zlatan when Zlatan joined United.
“Looks like I’ll be naming my kid Zlatan after all”
A third wrote: “His name is Zlatan meaning Golden and of course he is what the name and imply”
As he has grown ever more successful, Ibrahimovic has become a man who loves nothing more than to talk about himself in a third person.
And when the Swede says ‘I Am Zlatan’, it means more to him.