It may seem like Zlatan Ibrahimovic has been in the dark just because Sweden didn’t qualify for the World Cup (although we had plenty of Virtual Zlatan during ESPN's coverage of the World Cup). Ibrahimovic was a little salty after their 3-2 loss to Portugal in their World Cup play-off. In an interview with The Guardian he went on to say, “One thing is for sure, a World Cup without me is nothing to watch.” Thus, many who only followed the World Cup and not the Champions League or the French Ligue 1 may have assumed Zlatan was reaching the end of his playing career. However, the 33-year-old Swedish maestro is actually coming off another stellar season with French dream team Paris Saint-Germain (PSG). According to Ligue 1 statistics, this past season he scored 26 goals, which is 10 more than the second-best leading scorer, Edinson Cavani. And it seems that he hasn’t lost his touch during his downtime during the Cup.
During PSG’s training camp in Hong Kong Zlatan scored another amazing goal that makes you question how a giant of a soccer player can have such a gentle touch on the ball. With a beautiful run to the far post Zlatan receives a ball about 6 feet high and flicks it with the outside of his right foot right over the goalkeeper - it's a little Karate Kid-esque. Just imagine Martin Tyler exclaiming, “what a cheeky goal by Ibrahimovic!”
While we’re on the topic of Ibrahimovic creatively kicking things, it seems that he likes to not only kick soccer balls into goals, but he also enjoys kicking his teammates. Check out what we’re talking about thanks to this amusing YouTube video featuring Zlatan’s mischief set to the music of “Kung Fu Fighting.”
