PHOTO: Bildbyrån
Zlatan Ibrahimovic has had an absolutely fantastic football career.
But an old unknown piece of advice from Ronnie Hellström himself changed everything.
– He came up to me at a training session and asked, the late icon said in the “Lundh” podcast.
The long football career has come to an end and Zlatan Ibrahimovic has put his shoes on the famous shelf for good at the age of 41. 24 years in world football and games in some of the world’s biggest clubs where “Ibra” has left a big mark in every single one.
Zlatan’s career
He is without a doubt one of Swedish football’s absolute greatest of all time and his twelve (!) golden balls are perfect proof of that. Add to that the fact that Zlatan managed to win a total of 32 titles in club football and is the Swedish men’s national team’s all-time leading scorer, and you understand his greatness.
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But perhaps Zlatan’s career would have looked completely different if he hadn’t listened to the goalkeeper icon Ronnie Hellstrom’s Important Words. Hellström is one of Swedish football’s best goalkeepers of all time and has been named the world’s best goalkeeper during both the WC 1974 and WC 1978, unfortunately he passed away in 2022.
READ MORE: Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s completely unforgettable response to Ralf Edström who slaughtered “Ibra” live
Hellström’s advice
The legend helped a young Zlatan who was a hunted man in the summer of 2004 after great success in Ajax. But “Ibra” didn’t quite know which path he should take in his career and turned to Hellström.
– The funny thing was that he knew I had been a professional so he came up to me during a training session and asked: “Which country do you think I should move to?”. I answered Italy, and it has turned out that he has had his successes there, said the late Ronnie in the “Lundh” podcast a few years ago.
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Ibrahimovic knew Hellström from before when he was the goalkeeper coach at Malmö FF when Zlatan broke through there at the beginning of his career. Even then, Ronnie Hellström knew that the young lad from Rosengård was something very special and a real raw talent.
– A fantastic person, but did a bit of stuff, a bit of hustle and stuff. But you could tell from the guy that he was absolutely incredible. I was involved and played two goals sometimes, and when he got the ball I thought I was close to him but I was so far from the ball when he stretched his legs. It was absolutely unbelievable, Hellström told the podcast.
READ MORE: When Ronnie Hellström received the most unexpected gift from a major German sponsor: “Had never worked in Sweden”
Zlatan Ibrahimovic listened to the Swedish goalkeeper icon and went that summer to the big club Juventus and would then fall in love with Italian football and life off the pitch. Impressively, Ibra has won Serie A with Juventus, Inter and Milan as well as becoming the league’s top scorer on two occasions.
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