Zlatan for US President? He seems to think so
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In one of his less hyperbolic moments, Zlatan has said he could be President of the United States. What substance is there to this?
LA Galaxy striker, taekwondo blackbelt and all-round sound-bite sensation Zlatan Ibrahimovic has claimed he would have been US President, external by now, had he arrived in the States 10 years earlier.
Never mind the fact that presidential hopefuls have to be either born on US soil or in an American territory overseas – Zlatan does not want to hear about your boring small-print, okay?!
The quote came in response to a question about how he had changed American football ("soccer") culture, to which he replied: "I don't know if I changed it, I just keep doing my job. They're lucky I didn't come 10 years ago, because I would be the President today."
It’s probably fair to assume then that this may not have been Ibra officially announcing his Presidential ambitions and, instead, just a classic bit of hyperbole from a man who’s been making life so easy for sports journos for years now. That’s not, of course, to downplay his success in the MLS – 12 goals in his opening 15 games since joining LA Galaxy in March is nae shabby.
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Equally, would it be that crazy to see Zlatan move into politics? You know, not the Oval Office, like, given that he’s not eligible and all, but, in an age of rising populism and personality politics – surely there's a role somewhere for our Ibra.
Not only that, but, for all of his talking in the third person and depicting himself as the messiah, external as a way of announcing his club return, Zlatan has previously demonstrated that he does have the ability to contemplate bigger issues than how much to dominate a tired-looking MLS defence. He once showed off body-art that featured the names of 15 people suffering from hunger and famine, in order to raise awareness, external.
George Weah at AC Milan and playing football as president of Liberia
There’s also some precedent with big names making the move between sports and political arenas. George Weah, former star of AS Monaco, Paris Saint Germain, AC Milan, Chelsea and Manchester City is now president of Liberia. Boxer and “people’s champion” Manny Pacquiao won a senate seat, external in his home country of the Philippines in 2016 and Vitali Klitschko has spoken of his move from boxing to politics, external after being elected mayor of Kiev in 2014.
Oh, and there was that time that Craig Bellamy claimed Vincent Kompany was going to become 'president of Africa',, external which is obviously wrong for a few reasons – not least because a) Africa is not a country b) it doesn’t have a President and c) Vincent Kompany is from Belgium.
So, yeah, that last one was a bad example, but with Bellamy's logic, Zlatan slotting home after going one-on-one with the incumbent at the White House might be within the realms of possibility.
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