Zlatan Ibrahimovic and his return to the Sweden national team

Zlatan Ibrahimovic has been one of the best players in the world in the last couple of decades, perhaps a bit eclipsed by the two greats of the time (Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo), but he has had a career and quality worth nothing, and remembering, with stints in some of the best clubs in the world. Netherlands, Italy, Spain, France, England, and even the United States have been the leagues that have enjoyed the talent of the Swede who, however, has had his ups and downs with his national team.

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Ibrahimovic was eligible to play with several national teams, the first, that of Sweden, his native country, but he could also choose to play with Bosnia because of his father who had emigrated to Sweden, or for Croatia thanks to his mother. Despite this, Zlatan was always clear that he wanted to defend the Sweden shirt and he did so from the youth teams, participating in the under-18 and under-21 categories. His official debut with Sweden took place in 2001 when he was just 20 years old, getting called up and participating in the 2002 FIFA World Cup in South Korea and Japan.

In that year, 2001, he began his extensive journey with his national team with which he participated in the main international tournaments, although without achieving any significant milestones. Euros, FIFA World Cups, etc., were some of the competitions in which the Swede was able to compete representing his country although his performance was not as high as at the club level, which led many to think that this was due to differences in quality from their peers.

In 2016, when the official list of players that would be part of the Swedish team for the Euro in France was announced, Ibrahimovic announced that he would retire from the national team once Sweden’s participation in the tournament ended. After Sweden’s disappointing performance at the Euros, in which they finished bottom of their group behind Italy, Belgium, and the Republic of Ireland, the Swedish star made good on his word and left the national team.

After various months of speculation, there was talk of the possibility of Zlatan participating in the 2018 FIFA World Cup, something that ultimately did not happen due to a somewhat tense relationship with coach Janne Andersson and it was not until 2021 that he would wear his national team’s shirt again with 39 years of age, after the two had a conversation in Milan. Due to multiple injury problems, mainly in the knee and Achilles tendon, Ibrahimovic had not had greater participation in the last couple of years with Sweden, especially after the knee operation that kept him away from the pitch for 263 days.

On March 18, 2023, he scored his first goal for Serie A after the operation and that same month he received the call from Andersson to play for Sweden in the matches against Belgium and Azerbaijan for the Euro 2024 qualification. He was on the bench against the Belgians, although he entered a few minutes into the second half where he received a standing ovation from the entire Friends Arena in Stockholm, despite the defeat by Sweden.

However, a couple of days later, it was announced that Ibrahimovic had presented pain and therefore would not be part of the second game, something that causes concern to both Swedish fans and AC Milan fans.