Zlatan Ibrahimovic made a play against Ingemar Stenmark.
This caused Gunde Svan to react strongly – and ride out to the alpine icon’s defense.
– How can he claim that with that meat on his legs?, Gunde asked himself.
The debate was huge in sports Sweden in connection with Dagens Nyheter’s 150-year celebration. It didn’t really have much to do with the newspaper itself, but rather the list that the newspaper published in connection with the anniversary in 2014. A jury from the newspaper had to rank Sweden’s 150 best athletes of all time, and there were few who agreed with the result.
Zlatan’s performance
Zlatan Ibrahimovic was second on the list, beaten only by Ingemar Stenmark, and it was nothing he looked upon with any kind of glory. Instead, Ibrahimovic said that second place was “like coming last”.
– On that list I am 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, with all due respect to the others, Zlatan announced to DN.
Ingemar Stenmark, humble as always, thought that Zlatan Ibrahimovic might have a point, that Zlatan might deserve a place higher up. But the play was also met with some criticism – from, among others, Gunde Svan, who rode out in defense to Stenmark.
– Then you are as far from Ingmar Stenmark’s humility as you can get, Svan told Expressen.
READ MORE: Gunde Svan can only laugh out loud when Ingemar Stenmark reveals the sickest thing about his career: “Huh!?”
Gunde’s criticism
Gunde Svan develops his thought, and then wondered how far Zlatan could go before the Swedish people got tired, a discussion he had then had with a person during the Sports Gala.
– The question is how far Zlatan can pull that string. He who I talked about Zlatan with yesterday asked me: “How far do you think he can go with being able to say that?”.
Gunde Svan then used Petter Northug as an example, and how sad he was after the Norwegian star went there for drunk driving. According to Gunde, Zlatan was close to crossing that limit.
– At least on the border, I would say, he said.
Gunde Svan then said that there are also arguments to be made that Zlatan Ibrahimovic should be further down the list.
– The narrator at “Idrottsgalan” said that he thought it was so ugly towards the rest of us on the list. He took Björn Borg, who was world number one, as an example. He counted how many world number one’s and world champions were behind Zlatan on the list and Zlatan is ranked 13th in the world in football. And he hasn’t won anything either. That’s where he came. How can he claim with that meat on his bones that Borg or any of the others would not be ahead of him on the list. I haven’t thought about it before.
READ MORE: Gunde Svan looked into the future with an early tribute to Frida Karlsson and Ebba Andersson: “Very unusual”