Sweden’s main man more of a lone wolf

No man is an island, but Zlatan Ibrahimovic comes pretty close.

The Swede is an astonishing individual, a man who combines outrageous talent with a deep sense of mistrust; genius laced with cyanide.

That he bestrides his international team is undoubted, yet whether that is to his country’s benefit is quite another matter.

With Sweden already eliminated before their final Group D game against France tomorrow, the inquisition has begun.

Yet it was an upbeat and bullish Ibrahimovic that faced the press at Sweden’s training camp on the outside of Kiev yesterday. Not for him talk of international retirement or recriminations; rather a self-assured pat on the back for what he sees as his own superb performances in a losing cause.

Sweden will fly home on Wednesday after defeats to England and Ukraine, but Zlatan will remain aloof, apart.

What will he do if the weather is bad in Stockholm, he was jokingly asked. “I will have a plane standing by,” came the reply, and he seemed deadly serious.

This is a man who stands alone, living by his own rules and in his own world. That he is a world-class player is indisputable when you look at the statistics, but the fact remains that Ibrahimovic could and should be so much more.

The game against England was a classic example. For so long he was Sweden’s main threat but ruined his work by dropping off too deep, demanding the ball and slowing attacks down before shooting from distance. Therein lies the critical aspect of Ibrahimovic’s character, the flip side to the wondrous ability contained in his 6ft 5in frame.

Quite simply, who is Ibrahimovic performing for? Is it for his team-mates, his country, his coach? Or is it only for himself? The suspicion has to be that it is the latter.

Yesterday he was all bluster and bravado, but it is hard to pull that off when your team have already been eliminated.

Still, Ibrahimovic cares little about what is thought of him; indeed, how could he when his statements are full of so much self-congratulation after what have been rather average performances? “I feel 100% in my play, and I have never been as complete as I am now,” said the 30-year-old.

“It’s clear to me that I’ll continue [playing for Sweden], I know what I can get out of myself and I enjoy playing in the national team and in my club team. I’m not going to complain.

“For my part it has felt good, it has felt really good these weeks I’ve been here. Physically I’ve felt in great form, mentally the same. In the start of the matches we’ve played very well, but what help is that when you don’t win the game?

“It is the same thing as in Milan — I was top scorer, I broke all my own personal records but I didn’t get to win anything. I’d rather win and not play so well than play well and not win.”

It is difficult not to listen to that last sentence and wonder if Ibrahimovic is not perhaps being a little economical with the truth. Watching him in action at Sweden’s training camp is instructive. He demands the ball at every opportunity. His team-mates are treated almost with disdain.

If Ibrahimovic fails then Sweden tend to fail and it is not a coincidence that the 3-2 victory over the Netherlands that sealed their place at this championship was secured thanks to a strike-force of Johan Elmander and Ola Toivonen. Ibrahimovic was suspended for that match but walked straight back into the side on his return.

Yet when Ibrahimovic is in the mood he can be unstoppable. A total of 28 goals in 32 Serie A games for AC Milan last season was astonishing, as is the fact that he has won league titles in eight out of the last nine seasons.

That is tempered by accusations over his temperament though, having fallen out with a series of managers — most notably Pep Guardiola at Barcelona.

Five clubs in eight years for a player of such undoubted talent tells its own story, and so does the occasion in March when he swore at a female reporter live on television after criticism following AC Milan’s Champions League defeat to Arsenal.

He also ‘jokingly’ kung-fu kicked team-mate Rodney Strasser during an open training session in 2010 and has always struggled to fit in — while there are even suggestions he may now leave AC Milan for PSG.

The Sweden captaincy has made him a rallying point for his team, but it is hard to shake off the feeling Ibrahimovic feels he is doing his country a favour by turning out for them.

But it was in his role as captain that he reportedly gave his team-mates a dressing down for spending time with their wives and girlfriends rather than doing a full warm-down; an episode that is seen as at the heart of the rumours of ill-feeling that have dogged the Swedish camp throughout.

Still, it is to his credit that he issued a rallying cry yesterday, saying that this is just the start for a Sweden team that is likely to lose key players such as Olof Mellberg and Anders Svensson to retirement after tomorrow’s match.

“I’m still motivated, I want much more, I will do more, we’ll keep going,” he enthused. “It means nothing in my mind to think negatively. I think the opposite, we’ll keep going. I get angry inside and I get even more motivated, so — it’s not positive, what has happened here, but it has that effect on me.”

Those comments sum up the Ibrahimovic conundrum perfectly. He tries hard to talk about the team, the group, the collective. But sooner rather than later the focus is back on ‘I’ and ‘me’.

No matter how hard he tries this particular leopard cannot change his spots. Zlatan will always walk alone.