Zlatan Ibrahimovic believes the Swedish media are responsible for his World Cup omission. Ibrahimovic retired from international football after Sweden’s underwhelming Euro 2016 campaign, when they were eliminated at the group stage.
Since then, the fiery striker has continued to impress in front of goal with Manchester United and now LA Galaxy and he appeared to be eager on a return to the Sweden team for the World Cup, hinting several times that he would play in Russia.
But Sweden’s record goal-scorer thinks media coverage back home has counted against him more than his retirement.
”All the best players are there. Zlatan is not there, so… He should be there, but he’s not there. The media says they [Sweden’s team] are better without me, so that’s why I believe in them. This is the Swedish media mentality. I don’t have a typical Swedish name. I’m not the typical Swedish attitude, behaviour and that, but still I have the [goal-scoring] record in the national team,” Said the former Man united striker.