While my colleagues were busy arguing about who is better between Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, they simply forgot that there is one entity who is better than the two: Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
The Swede is an enigma; one could almost say that he is greater than the game itself. Some of the things he says and does are so outrageous that the Portuguese and the Argentine can’t even think of. So here I am, making my argument as to why Ibrahimovic is better than Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
P.S – Please do not continue reading if you do not understand sarcasm.
#5 Stole bikes
For all the cool things Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have done in their lives, I am pretty sure that their acts don’t even come close to what the Swede did during his childhood.
While most normal kids play marble or slide down the slide to spend time, Zlatan Ibrahimovic used to steal bikes as a fun activity to spend his time.
Right now, he might be roaming in expensive sports cars, but there was once a time when a bike meant a world to him. So when his bike got stolen one day, he made sure that he stole the world of other kids. According to himself, it gave him a thrill—an adrenaline rush that compelled him to keep doing it.
If you ask Lionel Messi about the most exciting thing he did in his life, he wouldn’t be able to come up with anything (except the serious tax evasion issue). If you ask Cristiano the same, he would probably goad about looking at himself in the mirror.
And this is why Zlatan is above the two.
#4 Asks his manager to go f**k himself
How many footballers do you know have the audacity to ask his manager to “go f**k yourself?” And that, too, if the manager is Pep Guardiola? There is only one name you can come up with: Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
To this day, the former Inter man doesn’t know why Guardiola stopped talking to him. Obviously, when you make your dream move to Barcelona and your manager begins to avoid you after couple of months—despite starting your career with a flurry of goals—you know something is wrong.
And Zlatan is not one to mess around. Not without giving a reason anyway. So when things got heated up, he asked the Catalan manager to do the logically impossible thing.
Normally, most players—namely both Messi and Ronaldo—would just sit back quietly at the back and cry in the darkness or use the press to vent their frustrations. Not Zlatan. He takes direct action against the source of his displeasure.
#3 Because “I am the boss”
There aren’t many players in the world of football who have a loud mouth while also backing their outspoken nature with performances on the pitch. In a world where Nicklas Bendtner thought he could be the best in the world and Mario Balotelli was of the opinion that only Lionel Messi is better than him, Ibrahimovic is like a breath of fresh air among the smell of rotten dry fishes.
He asks his team-mates to keep quiet because he is “the boss.” He claims that a World Cup without his not worth watching; that he come to United to become the “God of Manchester”; that he can’t “help but laugh at how perfect I am.”
Basically, he says things that both his Argentine and Portuguese rival can’t even think of. And the best part? He walks the talk.
#2 Taekwondo champion
“If I had gone into Taekwondo, I would probably have won several Olympic Gold medals.”
And he is probably right. Do Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have the agility to do what Ibrahimovic does? Simply not. How is football and taekwondo related, you may wonder. Well, they are not. And this is why Ibrahimovic is better than the aforementioned two: he links both these sports in his own way.
How does he link it? Just watch his fourth goal against England in Sweden’s 4-2 win against the Three Lions. It gives one a perfect idea as to what happens when football and taekwondo amalgamate.
If doubts still creep in your head, then just ask Oguchi Onyewu as to how the big Swede links the two sports he excels in.
#1 Because he is Zlatan
Zlatan Ibrahimovic is not only bigger than Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, he is perhaps bigger than the game itself. Zlatan is a philosophy; a way of life. Don’t believe me? Just grab a French and Swedish dictionary and you will find his name being represented as words there.
In French, the term ‘zlataner’ officially means “to crush” while the term ‘to zlatan’ in Swedish means to dominate with brilliance. This is something both Messi and Cristiano can never say about themselves simply because they aren’t good enough to have words named after them.
However, Zlatan is. He is more than just a footballer; he is a way of life. He is Zlatan. Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
