Thursday 30 July 2009

Ten Things You Should Know About Zlatan

- by Xavininiesta -

1 - He is of Bosnian (father Šefik) and Croatian (mother Jurka) descent born on October 3, 1981 in Malmo, Sweden, and a Muslim by religion.

2 - His wife Helena Seger is a model and airline executive 11 years his senior with whom he has two sons, Maximilian and Vincent.

3 - He speaks five languages - Swedish, English, Bosnian, Italian, and Dutch.

4 - He has 11 tattoos, most of them relating to his family and his spiritual beliefs, the most prominent of which is a chinese dragon drawn on the right side of his body.

5 - He has a passion for martial arts and counts as one of his idols Mirko Filipovic (also known as Mirko Cro Cop), a former Croatian law enforcement officer turned kickboxer and mixed martial artist.

6 - His boyhood footballing hero was the Brazilian Ronaldo, filling the walls of his room in Malmo with posters of the former Inter and Barcelona player. He finally met Ronaldo during his first Milan derby where, before the game, he simply stood on the pitch watching Ronaldo warm up. Watch their first encounter here.

7 - At the UEFA EURO 2004, he scored a goal against Italy with a special kind of heel kick. He jumped in the box and kicked the ball into the net with a side movement of his lower leg and foot. He later said in an interview that the move was inspired by taekwondo lessons he took in his youth. Watch a video of the goal here.

8 - Asked why he dribbles so much, he reportedly once said: "Ever since I started playing football, people have told me to dribble less. I won't have that in the school (that I'm building in Sweden). That's pretty basic - if a guy has something, don't take that from him."

9 - He taught himself to play ball on an old gravel pitch outside his mother's house. After he turned professional it was completely remade with rubber grounds sponsored by Nike. The goals have been painted in gold in honour of his name which means "golden".

10 - He scored a total of 9 goals in his first 2 games with Ajax. In his first Champions League game, he scored twice against Olympique Lyonnaise. He scored twice in his debut in the Swedish League, and also scored the first time he featured in the line up for Sweden. He similarly scored in his debut for Juventus and Inter (against Brescia and Fiorentina, respectively).


read Zlatan's latest interview here

28 comments:

Anonymous said...

He has never stated that he is muslim.

Tareq said...

11. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mWbpn-4t9w&feature=related

I dont like this about him. He seems to me like a serial murderer or a Manson type of person. Watch the video and I would like to know what you guys think.

I know he is new and all, but if Pep had a feeling about Eto, what would his reaction be to the Ibra u see in this video.

Anurag said...

@anony - cant you tell from the name??

Engineer said...

Haha, Tareq, are you serious?

Can't you hear that he's just joking? :)

They're quite friendly, him and the reporter, known each other for very long. He is just joking around and Ekwall (the reporter) doesn't mind, obviously.

Anonymous said...

Things we should know about zlatan:

12.
He can't score against big teams.
Like in the Chapions League, he has rarely scored and he also has/had a problem scoring in the big Italian Derbys like against Juventus or Milan.
All his "amazing" goals come against smaller italian clubs.

Not saying he won't score in Barca, because he will.
You don't have to be s super striker to be able to score when you have Henry to the left, Messi to the right, and Xavi and Iniesta behind you, constantly giving you great passes.
That is pretty much the only reasson Eto'o scored so many goals last seasson. And that probably will be the reasson why Zlatan will score alot in Barca.

Anonymous said...

Muslim? I don't think so. Maybe his family is, but him...

Anonymous said...

Tell by his name? Of course not. If you are given a christian name, you automatically believe in the christian god? You can not tell by his name whether he believes in an islamic god. His father probably believed in the islamic religion, and his mother probably believed in another god, or perhaps none of them believed.

Anonymous said...

Who cares what his religion is as long he scores his part of the goals? Shouldnt make any difference whether he's a jew, buddhist, Christian or whatever.

Ibrakadabra said...

Let´s hope he scores on his Barca debut too :-D

barca4life said...

Zlatan scored in both milan derbies during the 2006/2007 season in which inter did the double over milan for the first time in many years. He scored the winner in the 2nd derby that year and scored the 3rd goal in the 4-3 win in the first derby. And for those that say that the milan team was not good, that was the year that they won the champions league.

wanted47 said...

Fedor Emelianenko > Mirko Cro Cop

Anonymous said...

Zlatan is muslim name,I have a plenty of frinds called Zlatan,and they are all muslims.In some interview he said that he took fathers religion...

Anonymous said...

Tatoos are forbidden in islam. He has tatoos that even reflect his spiritual beliefs of oriental origins. This guy is not a muslim even if you claim that he has said so.

Ramzi said...

5 - He has a passion for martial arts:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9a5Lq3EjGGI&feature=related

And this "religion" debate is disgusting by the way.

SimonP said...

If he is a muslim he's secularized. He eats meat, drinks alcohol and don't celebrate Ramadan or pray 3 times a day.

It's retarded to make assumption about someones religion from their name. I know people named Makan, Muhammed, Omar etc. that are not even close to being muslims.

Anonymous said...

Zlatan's father is a Muslim, his mum's Catholic. And for Zlatan himself, he's an Atheist. Btw, Zlatan means "gold" or "golden" in Bosnian. :D

If you want to know more about Zlatan, you can search for a documentry film called "Cirkus Zlatan", youtube should have that.

MohamedH said...

He has a tatto which says 'Ibrahimovic' written in arabic on his right arm...
I guess the arabic alphabet is getting popular among tattoo artists...
Noticed it on Ramzi's video link. When he goes down you can see it clearly...

Fernando said...

MohamedH: Chinese characters are far more popular among tatoo artists I think.

Anonymous said...

This guy zlatan hopefully understands that Messi, Xavi and Iniesta are kings of Barcelona and champions. He will hopefully be humble and not full of himself.

Tudor said...

This two goals are so good...he is great..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vz5VL3mcso4 - AJAX

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tH6O22zhh80 - I think this one was 124km/h

Anonymous said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HXfSfSxdCc&feature=quicklist

Anonymous said...

i'm croatian and zlatan is croatian and bosnian name too.it means golden. it is not true that people with that name are muslim..90% people in croatia are catholic..

sashi said...

just cut the language talk guys. its getting a little overboard.

and about the stare, did he speak to him after the match or did he explain anything about the stare? was it in awe or was it like "dude, im gonna be better than u" sorta look???

Eddie said...

That number 9 is pretty cool. I love to hear about players giving back to their beginnings. Mad props.

Eddie

Anonymous said...

This idiotic debate about religion only magnifies the ignorance and intolerance of some small-minded people . Just give it a rest and stick with Barça football

Ba-Beka said...

Zlatan is not Muslim Name , it is Serbo - Croatian - Bosnian , Macedonian Name wich means GOLD , so there is nothing to do with Religion.
As i know and my friend used to live and train with him during his time in Sweden he is A Muslim Born but as 80% European Muslims he is Secularist different style , believe the same way , just don't follow all rules , that doesn't make u nonmuslim, no matter his mom is Catholic .
Tattoos are forbidden in Islam , so do Alcohol but that doesn't mean that they won't do it, so do Ibra did the same thing .. Also pork is Forbidden he don't eat pork but BEEF nobody said it is forbidden in Islam .

Don't talk about Soccer Players Religion , they are not in Barca Jersey because their Religion they are here to Win the Trophy as much as they can .
I hope Ibra follows Maradonas , Romarios , Ronaldos , Rivaldos , Eto's , Ronaldinhos way of playing for Barcelona .

Eddie said...

You know, it just occurred to me - we should do a Zlatan meme like the Chuck Norris memes that go around. Just a completely random top 10 list about how badass he is. I think that would be hilarious.

Anonymous said...

he is great player and balkan blood connection gives him abbility that he has...

visit

http://barcelonafootball.bloger.hr/

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