He does score better goals than Rooney, to be fair. Quite a character, Zlatan.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic
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Sweden's all time top scorer with a goal that sealed the playoffs right at the death of a 6 point game.
He's not their all time top scorer. Sven Rydell has 49, Zlatan is on 46.
When he decided to get a bit more involved we looked a much better team. A goal and an assist and we're through to the play-offs in a tricky group. Also that blatant yellow card so he gets suspended next match 
Total legend for Sweden. Guess we should cherish the moment, because it looks to be a long time until someone like that will come through again and I don't really see him playing for the NT after next summer.
Swedish football needs a good revamp. I don't understand why we are not producing talent when countries of similar size and with less resources are. Zlatan is an absolute legend and a joy to watch, he is on a different planet compared to the rest of the squad. Truly world class player and unfortunately I don't see us having someone like him or close to him anytime soon.
Yeah I know, it's depressing. When Zlatan's done it's gonna be difficult to watch this team.
I've heard some say the reason for Sweden's lack of talent is because of the climate and that players grow up playing on hard gravel pitches which destroys their knees. Since artificial grass is getting more prevalent he argues that it's looking up now but I'm not convinced. I mean, we used to do better than this. Something definitely seems off with regards to player development.
I've heard some say the reason for Sweden's lack of talent is because of the climate and that players grow up playing on hard gravel pitches which destroys their knees. Since artificial grass is getting more prevalent he argues that it's looking up now but I'm not convinced. I mean, we used to do better than this. Something definitely seems off with regards to player development.
Climate is a barrier for northern European countries, but like you I'm not convinced about that rationale. Sweden's two glory eras in the middle of the century and early-to-mid-1990s were both achieved without the aid of modern astro surfaces.
The national side will be fecking tragic to watch when he calls it a day. I don't think Swedish players have the mentality to really succeed.
Even if it is true it is far from the defining reason to why Sweden "lacks talent".
Sweden has 9 million people and are per capita ranked 19th best in the world last time I saw a ranking. Being 19th out of 207 isn't brilliant by any means but it is certainly very very good. Especially when you consider the fact that football isn't as big here as in most nations in the world.
The Swedish hockey league and the Football league average the same amount of attendance and the salaries are similar. There is also a sport called Floorball which was the most popular sport for teenagers not long ago, not sure if it still is.
Sweden has a really spread out sport interest in comparison to say Portugal/Netherlands/England/Brazil where football is clearly the number 1 sport. Sweden are much more like USA in this regard.
You will still have Elmander to grab his head and roll around on the floor though. Which at least will be comical to watch
It was funny reading the reactions of disbelief from Elmander apologists, spinning it to "he did it for the team as always" when it was an appalling dive.
That's what my brother keeps on saying. I don't get it though as we've had some fantastic players over the years. What's the solution? I keep on hearing that players with a foreign background need to be more incorporated like Germany and Belgium do. We need to look at what the Belgians are doing and try to do the same.
I get what you're saying, we're a small country but it's not looking good right now with regards to talent development.
Going somewhat (completely?) off-topic here, but have a look at Swedish Ice Hockey which you mentioned, a sport where we in the last 5 years have managed to arguably become the best pound-for-pound talent developer in the world. And this in a country where football reigns supreme (no one can convince me otherwise).
Sure, hockey is a bit of a big fish, small pond scenario, but Swedish football now looks to be in a situation which hockey used to be in recently. And now we're basically to international ice hockey what, say, Germany is to football, a gold standard in talent development.
About 10 years ago the situation was tragic and the talent vein dried up after the golden generation with Forsberg, Lidström, Sundin etc. So the Swedish Ice Hockey Association made a ton of good work revamping the Swedish hockey program to improve grass root coaching through education. They decided that Swedish hockey style needed to be more North American, more aggressive and decided on a specific model that is taught nationally. They now hold seminars and work with improving youth coaching throughout the country, they distribute material on coaching techniques all over the country. They also got better at identifying talents earlier etc etc.
Aside from that, they pressed to eradicate the typical Swedish mentality in youth development: that "participating" is just as important as winning, which is obviously a good thing if you want to get somewhere in competitive sports.
You get the feeling something like this is needed in football too. Ironically, the success of the Swedish hockey model must be a contributing factor to the downfall of Swedish football since they are often competing for the same talents.
Floorball isn't serious contender for talent for any big sport anywhere. Every kid with talent knows that they can earn millions in football and ice hockey, while not being able to quit their day job playing floorball. It's more of a pastime hobby. Like darts.
We'll never be Germany in football, but there is no reason Sweden shouldn't be developing a decent amount of talent. I can't see a new Zlatan / Ljungberg / Brolin / Larsson / Patrik Andersson anywhere. I don't even see a new Kim Källström or Elmander. And that's worrying.
Iceland to be better than Sweden at football and handball in a few years? We're only a little over 300k so it's something more than just the sports being spread out in popularity. Handball and basketball are both very popular here as well.
I fully agree with this. The Swedish FA needs to do something quick. Football is by far the most popular sport here and sweden is a rich, well organised country.
We have someone in our national side ourselves that does that constantly. I don't know if you even recognised him, but Mark Janko is someone rolling on the floor at every opportunity.
Hockey is so boring, wish it would just cease.
Guidetti looked promising but he seems to have died or something. Other than him...Hiljemark or Milosevic perhaps could end up decent.
Guidetti looked promising but he seems to have died or something. Other than him...Hiljemark or Milosevic perhaps could end up decent.
The best current Swedish player by a country mile. Henrik Larsson was probably the last one i could think of
http://www.svt.se/sport/mff-drar-overlagset-mest-publik
You will see that there are a lot of Hockey teams who avg more attendance than the least popular Football team in the highest division. There is also two SPEEDWAY and a bandy team that averages more attendance.
If you have a look at the avg. attendance and compare it to international standards you will see that Football is number one but 0 sports in Sweden are in reality POPULAR. An area like Stockholm is similar in population to Barcelona but still Barcelona avg 73.660 and AIK avg. 11.112.
People in Sweden don't really have a huge interest for viewing sports inside arenas if you compare it to the majority of other nations, especially the ones ranked higher up.
Sweden are pretty low rated in everything that would help produce great athletes in general.
We are suffering from football turning much more valuable, everywhere but in Sweden where it is going down steadily since the 70's. The average attendance 40 years ago was higher than it is right now and it has nothing to do with rules about seats or anything, just a dying interest.
Also the most popular league to watch in Sweden on TV is not our own league, it is the top leagues around Europe.
Regardless of all this I do agree that we have taken yet another step back in terms of talent and we could certainly improve, albeit only slightly.
Gotta love Zlatan, I hope he becomes a coach, and carries on the greatest wum in football!
Does seem strange that Sweden isn't as good as the Swiss or even Iceland at the moment.
It must piss Zlatan off that he isn't surrounded by better players.
Brilliant hockey players though, as a die-hard Red Wings fan I've seen some of the best - Zetterberg, Lidstrom, Alffredson and Holmstrom.
It must piss Zlatan off that he isn't surrounded by better players.
Brilliant hockey players though, as a die-hard Red Wings fan I've seen some of the best - Zetterberg, Lidstrom, Alffredson and Holmstrom.
Half way through his book and I must admit its changed my opinion of him. He great.
You've got to love him. Brilliant flick.
Sweden actually has more medals than Croatia, which would be his other option. Our players are not the most technical players but they have better mentality and organisation which is good if you want to make a comeback against germany when you're 4 goals down.
Remarkable what a man that size can do with his feet yet can't head a ball to save his life
I'm surprised not a lot of people went on to comment Bastia's military kit.
Looks like they stole Napoli's away kit.
It looks truly horrible, I mean wtf
? What next ? Policeman, firefighter designs ?Ho. Ly. Shit.
He's unreal when he's on form, the goals he can score are ridiculous and so varied.
Cannon!
He is as talented as any player I've ever seen. He's incredible.
4 in a game
They're( He is) dismantling Anderlecht
This guy is a freak. How does he do it?
Once the knockout rounds start he'll disappear as usual.
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