Former PSG striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic has been the victim of a chilling assassination attempt.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic left his mark on football in the 2000s and 2010s. From his thunderous debut at Ajax to his time at FC Barcelona and his years at Paris Saint-Germain and in Italy, the Swedish striker has been one of the most prolific scorers of the last twenty years. With 511 goals in 866 career games, he has been the architect of numerous titles in the biggest European leagues.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic also made his mark with his personality. Known for his oversized ego, he sometimes annoyed and sometimes aroused the admiration of his teams’ supporters. He also wore the Swedish national team for many years. He is thus the top scorer in the national team, with 62 goals.
But Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s career could have ended much earlier. Indeed, in 2010, the then FC Barcelona centre-forward was the victim of an attempted assassination by serial killer Peter Mangs. In his autobiography, the latter reveals that he wanted to kill Ibrahimovic: “assassinating Zlatan seemed like a good story for the media”.
“It would have made a lot of noise if I had shot him,” continues serial killer Peter Mangs, who terrorized the city of Malmö, where Zlatan Ibrahimovic is from, in 2010. He explains that he came across the footballer when he was parking his car in the street. He states in his book that he went to look for his weapon and returned to the scene to try to assassinate him, but the attacker had already left.
Peter Mans, sentenced to life for two murders and eight attempted murders, was known for his racist and xenophobic motivations. The reason why he wanted to kill Zlatan is also very particular: the footballer was guilty, according to him, of having parked badly. An attitude that considers “typical of a man from the Balkans”, a reference to Zlatan’s Bosnian and Croatian origins. This information, revealed by the Swedish daily Swedish Daily Newsconfirms the sad nickname attributed by the media to the serial murderer in 2009 and 2010: the “immigrant killer”.