Internet Desk: A statue of Zlatan Ibrahimovic will be erected in Stockholm, the Swedish FA (SVFF) have announced.
The monument, which will be built outside the Friends Arena in Sweden’s capital city, comes as the giant striker won the Golden Ball award for the country’s best male player for the tenth year in a row.
The 36-year-old Manchester United forward played 114 games and scored 62 goals for Sweden before retiring after Euro 2016.
His national team highlights included a spectacular four-goal salvo in 2012 against England in the first game at the stadium where he will now be immortalised.
Ibrahimovic has now won the Golden Ball a record 11 times – since its inception in 1946 no other player has won the award more than twice – and his contribution to the game will be honoured with the 2.7 metre statue.
Accepting the award, Ibrahimovic said: ‘It feels unreal. Many are thinking “Why him?” and so on, but after all the hard work over 15 years in the national team and 20 years in my club career, it feels like it’s being appreciated.
‘You usually get this after you die, but I still feel alive. When I die, this statue will live on forever.’
At the ceremony Ibrahimovic also received a specially recorded video message from David Beckham to congratulate him on his achievements.
Beckham, who was a team mate of Ibrahimovic’s for six months at PSG, said: ‘You’re an amazing person, an amazing player of course, but I have also have the pleasure of playing with you.
‘Zlatan is a player who has class, who always wants to win, and proved that at PSG. He was one of those players that it didn’t matter if we were playing in an important game or on the training field, he wanted to win. If he wasn’t winning, he was like one of my children.
‘His passion, his love for the game has not changed, he’s still one of the greatest players to have played the game, and I am happy now he is playing for Manchester United.’
Meanwhile the Manchester United star has said he is eying the possibilty of a move to Major League Soccer in future.
“I can see myself conquering the US, just as I have (conquered) Europe,” the 35-year-old Swede told daily newspaper Aftonbladet in an interview.
“People stay in one place throughout their entire career, but I have travelled around like Napoleon in Europe and conquered every country I’ve arrived in,” Ibrahimovic said.
“So maybe I could cross the Atlantic and conquer the US as well,” he said after winning the Swedish Golden Ball award for the 11th time on Monday.