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Lucas Boland/Imagn Images
Sweden is in the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Zlatan Ibrahimovic is at the World Cup.
They aren't together, though. The legendary Swedish striker isn't playing.
Instead, Zlatan is a part of the Fox broadcast crew as a pregame and postgame analyst.
His tendency to talk in the first person, along with a worldly knowledge of the game, makes him an entertaining listen.
But for Sweden, there is at least a bit of disappointment that one of the best strikers of all time isn't on the field for them in some capacity.
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Why isn't Zlatan playing at the World Cup?
Zlatan Ibrahimovic isn't playing at the World Cup because he retired.
His club career and international career both ended in 2023.
Ibrahimovic debuted for the Swedish national team in 2001. He ended up playing 122 times for his country, scoring 62 goals.
His club career took him from Malmo to Ajax to Juventus, then to Inter Milan and Barcelona, followed by AC Milan, PSG, Manchester United and the LA Galaxy.
Zlatan returned to AC Milan to finish his career from 2019-23.
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In all, Ibrahimovic played 637 club games at the senior level and scored 405 goals.
He played for Sweden at the 2002 and 2006 World Cups, as well as at four European Championships.
This time around, he's just talking about the game.
More FIFA World Cup news:
- Japan fans clean up the stadium after World Cup games
- Lamine Yamal hanging out at a Walmart
- Mexico has a World Cup… duck?
- Lawrence, Kansas has fallen in love with the Algerian national team
- Germany fan Freddy is going viral for his journey through the American South
Billy Heyen
Billy Heyen is a freelance writer with The Sporting News. He is a 2019 graduate of Syracuse University who spent his senior year following Jim Boeheim's basketball team around the country. His reporting work has also included extensive high school sports coverage at the Sandusky Register and Rochester Democrat & Chronicle. Adventures in sports writing have also led to in-person coverage of the Buffalo Sabres, Cleveland Guardians, U.S. men's national soccer team and a variety of minor league baseball stories. When people ask if he's seen a movie, the answer is usually "No, I was probably watching sports." Even away from sports, his main hobby is running (much slower than any athlete in these pages).
Source: Sporting News
