10 of the most outspoken footballers 

#10: Zlatan Ibrahimovic

Zlatan Ibrahimovic's favourite subject to talk about is usually himself

Even if he’d literally never uttered another word during his playing career – which goes back to 1999 with Swedish side Malmo – legendary striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic would probably deserve a spot on this list purely for his classic “Zlatan doesn’t do auditions” line towards Arsene Wenger when Arsenal’s boss offered him a trial back when he was still a relative unknown.

Fortunately for followers of the beautiful game, Ibrahimovic has since come out with some other belters, making him one of the most outspoken – and funniest – players in the game. For the most part, Zlatan loves to talk about himself – he once suggested “the World Cup is nothing without me” following Sweden’s failure to qualify for the 2014 tournament, and even cheekily called himself God while being quizzed by a reporter.

He’s also quite savage about others when he has the chance – he famously labelled Pep Guardiola as a “spineless coward” and “not a man” after the breakdown of their relationship at Barcelona, and when a reporter questioned him on whether he was gay, he fired back “come to my house and you’ll see if I’m gay....and bring your sister”.

Love him or hate him, there’s no denying that Zlatan can talk trash with the best of them – and almost always backs his words up on the pitch too, making him one of the world’s most entertaining outspoken players.