CARSON, Calif. — Half the players scrimmaged in green pinnies Wednesday, half in gray shirts alone. “Man on!” the Los Angeles Galaxy yelled. “Switch!” “Heyheyhey!” It was a fairly standard soccer practice, really, nothing-to-see-here ordinariness. What had everyone abuzz is whom they weren’t seeing.
“I thought Zlatan was training,” one youth-academy player said.
“Why isn’t he?” asked another.
Even when he’s absent, it seems, Zlatan Ibrahimovic has transfixed a city, and a league.
The Swedish all-world striker arrived from Manchester United on March 29, met in the Southern California darkness by flashes of iPhone cameras, thrust-forth Sharpies, chants of his name, unintelligible screeches and a viral-ready hashtag: “#zLAtan.