After two months of speculation, Zlatan Ibrahimovic is staying put. The 37-year-old has re-signed with the LA Galaxy, teasing the move in his accustomed brash style with a tweet saying “MLZ I’m not done with you yet” accompanied by a video with various media members discussing rumors of his future away from Los Angeles.
Ibrahimovic scored 22 goals and had 10 assists in his debut MLS campaign. But the larger-than-life Swede didn’t limit his quality, audacity and entertainment to the field of play; he was in form whenever microphones were in his face.
To celebrate his return, here’s a quick run-through of his best one-liners of 2018.
“Dear Los Angeles, you’re welcome.”
Zlatan Ibrahimovic has taken out a full page advert in the @latimes announcing his arrival at LA Galaxy. Classic Zlatan. pic.twitter.com/TeFXM2De7e
— Dale Johnson (@DaleJohnsonESPN) March 23, 2018
Naturally, this is how Ibrahimovic announced he was signing for the Galaxy in March.
“I heard the crowd saying, ‘We want Zlatan, we want Zlatan.’ So I gave them Zlatan.”
Somehow it took no longer than mere days for his preemptive “you’re welcome” to come true. Ibrahimovic, with just one training session under his belt, entered the first El Trafico clash against LAFC and orchestrated a Galaxy comeback from 3-0 down at halftime to a 4-3 win.
“He thinks he’s the philosopher of football.”
The “he” Ibrahimovic was referring to, of course, was Toronto FC captain Michael Bradley. The two were having an animated discussion in September.
“He thinks he’s the philosopher of football,” Ibrahimovic said. “I have more goals than he has games. He should follow my rules.”
To be fair, Bradley held serve by responding on ESPN’s Max and Herc podcast: “I thought we were having a good football conversation, I really did,” Bradley said with a laugh. “I guess he didn’t quite think so.”
“I’m just happy for the Toronto fans, that they got to see something they haven’t seen before.”
From the same game against TFC, when Ibrahimovic scored his physics-defying 500th career goal. It’d be difficult to prove him wrong on that front.
“They’re lucky I didn’t come 10 years ago because I would be the president today.”
Ibrahimovic claims he would have been President of the United States had he came to MLS a decade ago. This one, though, is a bit easier to disprove than the prior claim.
“Nah, I think they love me. I’ll make them love the team, also.”
This was discussing San Jose Earthquakes fans ahead of Ibrahimovic’s first Cali Clasico.
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