Zlatan Ibrahimovic has a reputation for his extreme self-confidence which sometimes boils over to arrogance. He often refers to himself as ‘God’ and considers himself one of the greatest footballers of all time.
However, there is one footballer ‘God’ that Zlatan will happily worship: Ronaldo Nazario.
Asi te miro como Zlatan ve al fenómeno Ronaldo
— Ricardo ® (@ricardotope) July 5, 2021
The Brazilian legend, who was arguably the world’s best striker in the late 1990s and early 2000s before injury problems hampered his career, won a number of individual and team awards during his lucrative career before hanging up his boots in 2011.
Ronaldo’s best years came with spells at Barcelona, Inter Milan and Real Madrid.
Zlatan grew up idolising Ronaldo and even had posters of the Brazilian on his bedroom wall.
I like how Zlatan is a proper Ronaldo fan boy. Posters on his wall and everything https://t.co/NGX58zCfwv
— Fah’d (@genius_ish) June 7, 2016
This week the legends were able to spend some time together which left football fans imagining what damage they could’ve done in the same team.
Just imagine @Ronaldo pic.twitter.com/yqlgtnOp3l
— Zlatan Ibrahimović (@Ibra_official) July 4, 2021
Zlatan had previously paid tribute to his favourite ever player during an interview with the Manchester United programme.
He said: “I think Ronaldo was phenomenal. As a young player I watched him and said to myself ‘I want to be exactly like that’… the player who makes the difference, the shining light, simple as that”.
The well-travelled striker recently stressed his admiration for Ronaldo yet again, saying “I don’t need to describe Ronaldo, ‘The Phenomenon'”.
Ronaldo scored 296 goals in 452 matches across his career, whilst also winning the FIFA World Player of the Year three times and two Ballon d’Ors, the first of which saw him become the youngest winner of the prize at 21.
 |
| Image: PA |
Ibra’s career is also mightily impressive. The veteran Swede scored 500 goals from 800 appearances during a career that stretched over 21 years.