If this is the end for Zlatan Ibrahimovic in American Major League Soccer? Well then happy trails and good riddance. Sure, his egregious egomania is part hamming it up for the cameras, as he’s nowhere near, in real life, the egoist he plays on television in interviews, but he is most certainly a real diva.
Whom are we kidding? He’s more diva than Mariah Carey! In what could be his final game in MLS, he made a crude, vulgar gesture to the crowd, before then slamming the very league that pays him so handsomely. His current contract with L.A. Galaxy expires at the end of the year, and it remains a mystery whether he will return or not.
“I have another two months [on my contract],” Zlatan said. “We’ll see what happens. … [If I stay], then MLS is good, because the whole world will watch it. If I don’t stay, nobody will remember what MLS is.”
In that beyond arrogant harangue he also added that more people are interested in his his future with the league than they are the MLS Cup. And while he may be right on that last point, okay 1.) if this league is such a joke a to you- why are you playing in it, and not something better? and
2.) then give your fat paycheck back to the league then, if it’s going to struggle so much.
It appears that Ibrahimovic is burning his bridges on the way out, a la his former Manchester United teammate Wayne Rooney. And with another former MUFC teammate, Bastian Schweinsteiger, retiring, MLS will be Red no more and the league certainly faces a star name drain next season. So Ibra does have a point or two on that issue, it’s just that he’s nowhere near as big of a deal as he thinks he is.
According to a video from Sky in this tweet, the arrogant Swede is set for a return to Spain:
?? @Ibra_official back to Spain..? pic.twitter.com/HGT4rTWvib
— Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) October 29, 2019
In what capacity remains to be seen, but we’re guessing the 38-year-old is striving for one more season in La Liga, where he has one season of playing experience in his career. Of course, Ibrahimovic is being mysterious about this, it’s a bit that is all part of his stand-up comedy act.
When Ibrahimovic came to Bridgeview, Illinois last season, he kept the media waiting for 55 minutes and just talked for just 3. Reporters from Sweden didn’t even get a chance to ask a question. Ibrahimovic made sure to include a “I hear they never sell out here, maybe I should come more often and then they will sell out.”
Although it’s not all his fault, as L.A. Galaxy Media Relations have often pretty awful at their jobs when it comes to providing media access. D.C. United, at least with Wayne Rooney, were equally terrible and pointlessly restrictive.
However, Zlatan hasn’t gotten any push back from the media at all, until finally, this past week. Most of the media won’t bash him, no matter what he says, because he consistently provides colorful copy, when 99% of athletes and coaches do not.
However, this time he went too far. He says he’s bigger than the league as a whole, when he’s literally not even bigger than his club. (They also once had these guys named David Beckham and Steven Gerrard, Ibrahimovic may have heard of ’em).
Watch former Fulham and USMNT star Brian McBride accurately and justifiably take him down in the video below:
This column on NBC Sports Soccer from this past Friday tells it like it is on Zlatan Ibrahimovic too.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
You can follow Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com on Twitter here and his cat on Instagram at this link.