Ibrahimovic is back: how has Sweden fared since you left?

Zlatan Ibrahimovic is synonymous with spectacle. Everything that surrounds and what it generates is spectacle. But in Sweden, in addition to all this, he is a legend. The Malmö-born forward was everything – or almost everything – for his country in football terms for several years and now he's back. He is the player who has scored the most goals for the Swedish national team (62) and the seventh who has played the most games (116). The numbers speak for themselves. However, the Swedish star could not improve upon the best performances of Sweden in international championships.

Five years after his last game with the national team, Janne Andersson returned to summon Zlatan Ibrahimovic for the World Cup qualifying matches against Kosovo and Georgia and the friendly against Estonia. The player himself announced his return with a clear message on social networks: “The return of God.” If he plays Georgia today, he will become the Oldest footballer to play for the Sweden national team with 39 years, 5 months and 23 days.

The front from Milan debuted with the senior team in January 2001 in a match against the Faroe Islands which ended in a zero tie. Since then, Ibrahimovic disputed more than 100 matches with Sweden participating in two World Cups and four European Cups. He always had his tensions with the federation and different coaches. Lars Lagerbäck decided to remove 'Ibra' of the national team after skipping the curfew in September 2006 when he was in a nightclub with Christian Wilhelmsson and Olof Mellberg. After not qualifying, he left the national team for six months claiming “lack of motivation”.

The first participations of Ibrahimovic with their selection in the final stages of international championships they were acceptable. In the 2002 World Cup, in which they barely played 45 ', Sweden reached the eighth. In Euro 2004, in which he was the protagonist, he scored two goals and his team was eliminated in the quarterfinals (penalties against the Netherlands). In Germany, in 2006, Sweden fell in the second round and, at that moment, the downhill and a few years of crisis began. The blågult they were left out of the 2010 and 2014 World Cups and were eliminated in the group stage at the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Euro Cups. After the last one, Zlatan Ibrahimovic announced at a press conference that he was leaving the national team permanently.

How has Sweden fared after you left?

The failure of Euro 2016 in France was a turning point for the Swedish soccer team, which began to regenerate the group and changed its coach seven years later. Janne Andersson relieved Erik Hamren from office and started a new stage. Sweden, framed with France and the Netherlands in the qualifying group for the World Cup, He achieved the machado and managed to be in second place after the Gala selection. In the repechage she was unlucky and was paired with Italy. The Scandinavians achieved the impossible and eliminated the Italians after winning 1-0 in the first leg and drawing 0-0 in the second leg at San Siro. They had succeeded. They returned to a World Cup 12 years later. And without Ibrahimovic.

An Ibrahimovic who did not miss the opportunity and offered himself through the media and social networks, showing himself open to contesting the World Cup event despite not having played a single match in the qualifying phase. Janne Andersson was quick to respond and assured that only the players who had qualified for the national team deserved to go to Russia. In Russia, Sweden had the best performance at a World Cup since third place in the United States 1994. They surpassed as leaders a group with Mexico, South Korea and a Germany that remained in the first round and won with a goal from Forsberg to Switzerland in the round of 16. They had already made history. In the quarterfinals, in Samara, they were outmatched by a very effective England that left them behind thanks to goals from Maguire and Alli.

To all the above we must add the great participation of the Swedish team in the first edition of the Nations League. They were framed in group 1 of League B along with Russia and Turkey, two level rivals. Andersson's men were superior and beat the Russians in the last game (2-0) to become champions and be promoted to League A. Furthermore, also without the Milan striker, They managed to qualify for Euro 2020, which is expected to be held this summer. The Swedes were framed in the group of Spain and were second with 21 points.

Since the departure of the natural striker from Malmö in 2016, lThe yellow team has played 61 games adding international tournaments, qualifying and friendly phases. He has added 26 victories, 15 draws and 20 defeatsIn other words, he has won 42% of his matches and has not lost 67% of them. More than reasonable numbers for a selection that grows from the union of the group.

Before the arrival of Zlatan Ibrahimovc to the national team, Sweden managed to reach the semifinals of the 1992 European Championship that was played in your own country and finished third in the 1994 World Cup in the United States. Those were his golden years before the arrival of an Ibrahimovic who left his mark on the history of his team but who, however, was unable to get beyond the first knockout round of a final phase.

Controversy with the current coach

The last days of 2019 were for the environment that surrounds the Swedish national team and Ibrahimovic. Taking advantage of the inauguration of a statue of the player in his native Malmö, Zlatan did not miss the opportunity to criticize the coach Andersson and accuse him of being a racist by not summoning any footballer of immigrant origin to his first list: “First call, what happens? How many of other origins did he include? Nobody. They asked him and he whimpered. Then he already called others of different origins to be politically correct.”

The coach responded to the day and was blunt: “It made me very sad and I was very disappointed that a former player from the national team said that. It hurt a lot. I do not look at the origin of the players when calling them. I appreciate the enormous support received” . Robin Quaison, current Swedish national footballer with Ghanaian ancestry, came out to defend his coach: “We have players of immigrant origin. I don't think Janne is racist and, since I don't think so, he doesn't influence me. I have foreign roots and I'm here, you just have to see him” … Two years later, his ways turn to cross with the aim of doing something important in the Eurocup.