PHOTO: Bildbyrån
Henke and Zlatan, two of Swedish football’s greatest ever.
Together, they have conquered football Europe in their respective directions.
Henrik Larsson has also given crucial advice to Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Swedish football should be extremely proud to have produced two superstars who Henrik Larsson and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Side by side, they formed a feared attacking pair in the Swedish national team and individually they have had fantastic careers in some of Europe’s biggest club teams.
Henke’s career
Larsson became the role model who left Sweden early and paved the way for young talents from the suburbs to become professional footballers. “Henke” found his second home in Scotland and became a beloved icon at Celtic where he poured in goals during the early 2000s.
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The Swedish striker won the Guldskon as Europe’s very best goalscorer and then the big giants noticed him. Where a big move to Barcelona was the next stop in his career and it would lead Henrik Larsson to a Champions League title in 2006.
READ MORE: Thierry Henry mocks Zlatan with a real grin – then “Ibra” responds in the best way and silences the icon completely
Zlatan’s career
For Zlatan, the first adventure abroad was to Ajax and then on to Italy for games in both Juventus and Inter before a familiar club contacted him in 2009. It was Barcelona that wanted to sign a new Swedish striker after Larsson left three years earlier.
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Then Henke wanted to help Zlatan in the best way possible by giving decisive advice to his attacking partner in the Swedish national team.
– I can only say good things about Barcelona. Barcelona is a fantastic club, at the moment the best club in the world that plays fantastic football and has fantastic players, Larsson said in an interview with Fotbollskanalen in 2009.
– Whether he is going to go there is a decision he has to make.
Larsson’s advice
Just as Henrik Larsson wanted to switch from Scotland and play on the very biggest stage, he recommended Zlatan to try his luck at the giant Barcelona after many successful years in Italy.
– I can definitely understand that, he has been there for a long time and won the league and won the shooting league. Clearly there is a hunger in him to win other things than just winning the Italian league, Henke said as advice to “Ibra”.
– But we can stand and talk and guess about this, but a little patience is also good to have. Wait and see if anything happens.
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There was a move to Barcelona in the summer of 2009, perhaps due to Henrik Larsson’s advice, and Zlatan Ibrahimovic did very well in his debut season with 21 goals in 45 games. But despite that, he was forced out of the club after a conflict with the coach Pep Guardiola and after only one year returned to Italy again and played for Milan.
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