“I am Zlatan…and I am great.”

I was talking to Jay and Heather the other day about Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Apparently, Heather is quite taken with saying his name…”Zlatan Ibrahimovic.” It’s almost as fun to say as it is to spell.

Anytime someone brings up Zlatan I tend to talk about two thigns: a) how is “Zlatan Ibrahimovic” Swedish (turns out he’s of Bosnian and Croatian descent) and 2) the gum incident.

Let me drop some science for those that are not familiar with Zlatan and his Hubba Bubba.

Zlatan is going through his typical warm up routine: stretching, light jogging, some 5v2 and some keepy uppy. The big Swede is chewing gum while he’s getting the blood flowing. Out of the blue he spits out his gum…juggles it…kicks it back into the air…catches it with his mouth and continues his warm up.

Zlatan was not knowingly putting on a show. The press loved the skill. One photographer was lucky enough to catch Zlatan in the act and snapped a few shots of the performance. The photos immediately made their way back to Stockholm and eventually spread throughout the soccer community.

Nike produced a piece about the incident for one of their Jogo Bonito ads.

…and speaking of Swedes…here’s a nice shot of Martin Dahlin jostling with Aldair from the November/December 1995 issue of Eurosport.

One Response to ““I am Zlatan…and I am great.””


Gawd I love Zlatan.

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