PHOTO: Bildbyrån
Zlatan Ibrahimovic is one of Swedish sports’ all-time greats.
But there is an award that he never got to receive at home in Sweden.
And now the reason behind Zlatan being snubbed all these years is revealed.
He is one of Swedish football’s absolute greatest players of all time, many consider him to be the very best. Zlatan Ibrahimovic has had an incomparably good career and won medals and trophies on a conveyor belt around Europe.
Zlatan’s success
He has conquered Holland, Italy, Spain, France, England, the USA and above all Sweden. With his 62 goals in 122 international matches, “Ibra” is Swedish national team soccer’s top scorer on the men’s side of all time.
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Zlatan has also won the Golden Ball 12 times, by far the most in history, awarded the Jerring Prize, received a medal of honor from King Carl XVI Gustaf for his merits in Swedish sports, but there is an award that he was never allowed to receive.
Nobbat Ibrahimovic
When the Victoria Prize was awarded in the summer of 2023, it was also Ibrahimovic’s last chance before his football career ended. But again he was snubbed for the prestigious award from Crown Princess Victoria by the Swedish NHL star Erik Karlsson.
“Many of us wondered if it might finally be Zlatan’s turn. But in Zlatan’s absence, the hockey player Erik Karlsson is a good choice for the Victoria prize,” writes Peter Boström in an editorial in Ölandsbladet.
“But it’s a shame that Zlatan never got the award”
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Zlatan is usually counted among the biggest giants in Swedish sports, together with greats such as Ingemar Stenmark and Björn Borg. But it is highly remarkable that only one of them has won the Victoria Award over the years.
“Ingemar Stenmark actually received the first Victoria scholarship in 1979. Björn Borg never received the award, this for the same reason that Zlatan will never receive the award, writes Boström and then reveals the truth behind Ibrahimovic being snubbed by the crown princess every single year.
“Zlatan can’t be there in Borgholm on July 14 and then it doesn’t work, Kay Wiestål explained time and time again, as long as he had a hand in the appointment of scholarship holders. Surely it has been recorded several times. Free winter athletes have found it easier to come to Borgholm than summer athletes who are in the middle of the season”.
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Only three footballers have been awarded the Victoria Prize since its inception in 1979 and that’s it Thomas Brolin, Henrik Larsson and Torbjörn Nilsson. Perhaps Zlatan Ibrahimovic should also be added to that list.
“That Erik Karlsson receives this year’s Victoria prize is extremely well deserved. But it is unfortunately impossible to get over the feeling of disappointment at never having seen Zlatan Ibrahimovic in Borgholm. Now he is resigning and thus the last chance to see the future queen handing out an award to the outgoing football king disappeared,” writes Peter Boström in his editorial at the local newspaper.
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