Search icon

Sport

23rd Dec 2014

An unhappy Zlatan made some brilliant Zlatan comments after being named Sweden’s 2nd greatest athlete of all time

It looks like it's the winning that matters, not the taking part...

Eric Lalor

We love Zlatan, but not half as much as he does.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic is one of the great footballers of our time. He possesses enormous amounts of self-belief and when you have the ability that he has, that self-belief comes as no surprise.

In a poll run by Swedish newspaper DN, he was voted second in a list of the greatest Swedish athletes of all time, just behind the legendary Bjorn Borg. When asked by the newspaper for his reaction to coming second in the poll, his reply was typically Zlatan. “Thanks, but to come second is like coming last.”

Kitchee v Paris Saint-Germain

He was then asked “You have mentioned earlier, Muhammad Ali, Petter Northug and Ronaldo athletes holding high. Who would have ended up on the podium if you would rate the foremost Swedish athletes ever?”

In the most Zlatan-esque reply ever he said “On the list I am 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5th, with all due respect to the others.”

Bjorn Borg of Sweden in action

So he’s taken it well then. In fairness, he did concede respect to the outright winner, the tennis legend and underpants king that is Bjorn Borg. He was asked for his reaction to Borg (pic above) saying that Zlatan was bigger than IKEA. “Bjorn Borg is a cool person and a living legend.”

Just not as big a legend as you are Zlatan, eh?

Hat-tip – DN