I remember the first time I saw Zlatan. It was in the summer of 1999 and I was standing at Malmo’s training ground talking to one of the first-team defenders, a rather unsophisticated Swedish player who specialised in kicking the ball into the stands whenever it went near him.
He pointed to a young, tall guy standing by himself, kicking the ball. ‘That’s the new player in the first-team squad. He’s the most talented young player I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately he will not go far. He doesn’t have the mental capacity to make it.’
That young player was Zlatan Ibrahimovic, then a 17-year-old unknown, but these days the self-confident maverick with a career few can match.