Zlatan Ibrahimović (born October 3, 1981 in Malmö, Skåne län, Sweden) is a Swedish international striker currently playing for Juventus in Italian Serie A.
Born to Bosnian immigrants, father Šefik (Bosniak Muslim) and mother Jurka (Catholic) Ibrahimović, who are from the Tuzla area. Zlatan grew up in a neighbourhood in Malmö dominated by immigrants, Rosengård. He started playing football at the age of 10. His initial club was called FBK Balkan and consisted mostly of immigrants from the Rosengård neighbourhood. Later, Ibrahimović started professional football with the Swedish club Malmö FF in the 1999-2000 season. During his stay at the club, Arsène Wenger tried to persuade him to join Arsenal but Malmö did not allow a transfer to occur.
Other than Wenger, Leo Beenhakker was also interested in Ibrahimović after observing the striker practicing in Spain. Beenhakker went back to Amsterdam and on March 22, 2001, a deal between Ajax and Malmö regarding Ibrahimović's transfer to Amsterdam was announced and in July of the same year, he joined Ajax for €7.8 million.
Under manager Co Adriaanse, Ibrahimović did not get much exposure. His fortune started to change with the arrival of Ronald Koeman. Since Koeman's arrival, Ibrahimović had consistently been chosen in Ajax's starting lineup.
On August 31, 2004, the final day of the summer transfer window, Ibrahimović moved from Ajax to Juventus for a €16 million transfer fee. Near the end of the Serie A season, where he scored 16 goals, Juve reportedly rejected a €70 million bid for him from Spanish power Real Madrid. This later proved to be nothing more than a PR stunt initiated by Ibrahimović's agent in order to raise his market value. Nonetheless, he is generally considered to be one of the world's top football talents and was voted the player of the season in 2004/05 by the fans of Juventus.
Zlatan has been nominated to the 2005 FIFA world player of the year along with thirty other top players.
On November 14, 2005 he was awarded Guldbollen, a prize given to the best Swedish footballer of the year.
