The Power of Zlatan: How Ibrahimovic Became the Real King of Sweden

It's hard to think of an athlete in any sport in the world who divides opinion as sharply as Zlatan Ibrahimovic. The Republic of Ireland manager Martin O'Neill once called him the most overrated football player in the world, while Jose Mourinho, in 2014, described him as one of the world's top three. Laurent Blanc, his current coach at Paris Saint-Germain, has hailed him as one of the team's leaders, yet his career has been littered with spats and fights with team-mates and managers.

Zlatan has won 12 league titles with six different clubs, yet some maintain he merely dominates weaker opponents and falls short at the very highest level. He is Sweden's captain and one of his nation's instantly recognisable national icons, yet there are still people in Sweden who would argue he isn't really Swedish. It seems that even after 15 years in the spotlight, the world still doesn't quite know what to make of Zlatan. To understand this most complex and contradictory of characters, you have to start at the beginning.

Rune Smith cuts a dapper figure in the lobby of a hotel in central Malmo. Now retired, Smith was the first journalist who saw Ibrahimovic causing havoc on the training ground of Malmo FF, the city's hugely popular local team.

"Hasse Borg called me and said I had to come down to training because he had never seen anything like it. It was magical," he told Bleacher Report.

Borg was the club's sporting director at the time, and he was dumbstruck by what the lanky teenager was doing against seasoned professionals in training. For Smith, it was a special moment. Most local journalists will cover their patch for a lifetime without ever seeing the kind of raw talent that the teenaged Ibrahimovic was displaying.

"He was fantastic," Smith remembers. "He dominated training sessions. All the older players were furious because they couldn't get the ball off him. I used to call him The Hulk. But even though he was 1.92 (metres tall, being 6'3"), he also had technique. Such quick feet and such technique, and with that size...It shouldn't be possible."

This is an absolutely wonderful article about the incomparable Zlatan Ibrahimovic, written by Lars Sivertsen for the Bleacher Report. To read the rest, please click here.

Soccer ball swept to sea during 2011 Japanese tsunami washes up on Alaskan island 5000 kilometres away

A battered soccer ball that was swept up on the shores of an Alaskan island may be the first piece of debris from the Japanese tsunami last March. The soccer ball, which is covered in Japanese writing, was spotted on the coast of Middleton Island by radar technician David Baxter, the Anchorage Daily News reported. He realized the significance of his find after his wife, who is originally from Hachioji, in western Tokyo, translated the writing and traced it to the name of a school.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Office of Response and Restoration confirmed that the school named on the ball was in a tsunami-hit area. "There have been other items that were suspected, but this is the first one that we're aware of that has the credentials that may make it possible to positively identify it," the NOAA's Doug Helton said.

According to The Japan Times, the ball belongs to Misaki Murakami, a 16-year-old high school student in Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture, who lost his home in the disaster. Murakami said the ball, which is covered in messages of encouragement, was given to him by his third-grade classmates before he moved to a new school in March 2005.

"I have no doubt that it is mine," Murakami said. "To be honest, I'm surprised. I want to thank the person who found it, as none of my sentimental items have been found."

The Baxters hope to return the ball personally to Murakami this summer when they take a vacation in Japan, The Japan Times reported. "We're very happy that the owner of the ball is safe. We want to return the ball as soon as possible," Baxter said. "When I first saw the ball, I knew that it had a special meaning to its owner."

Serbian Accusations Against Italian Police Are Pure Spin

Serbian soccer officials are trying to put a fresh, albeit ridiculous spin on the riot their fans caused at the recent Italy Serbia Euro 2012 Qualifier in Genoa. Despite the fact that the whole world watched Serbian fans throwing flares onto the field and at rival Italy supporters. So instead of apologizing for this appalling behavior, the Serbs have accused their Italian counterparts of being responsible for the crowd disorder that caused the abandonment of the match. What a total crock, although Sepp Blatter, the FIFA President believes that if the local police had been tougher with the Serbs fans the problem would have not have so severe. Maybe so, but the jury is still out on that one.

However, it is the Serbian fans who are responsible for this debacle and should be punished appropriately. Not only did they attack the Italians but also their own goalkeeper Vladimir Stojkovic as the team made its way to the game. He was seen hiding in the Italian dressing room shaking like a leaf, according to the Italian coach. The team bus was also reportedly attacked with hoodlums going on board and threatening the team. This attack was completely premeditated, and by some reports was orchestrated by criminal elements for the fee of 200,000 Euros.

Whatever the final outcome, which should not necessarily result in the complete ejection of the Serb team from the competition, should not be rushed. A full police and UEFA investigation must be completed before any decision is made. What Soccer-Serbia is trying to do is emulate their fans, and bully the European federation into making a hasty decision in their favor. Their charges against Italy are baseless and must not be given any credence.

The solutions to this problem are not easy. If Serbia is allowed to continue in this competition, away games may have to be played without any of their fans present. Home games, if they progress further, could be rescheduled for a neutral venue. They could even be docked points. Whatever happens, the Serbs themselves, Soccer-Serbia and the government need to get a lot more ruthless withe the hooligans themselves. Long jail terms would send a clear message that this rioting will not be tolerated. This is how the English, long the scourge of European soccer, cleaned up their act. Serbia needs now to put this behind them and ensure that they rebuild their reputation by corrective action.

Reverse Immigration: Turkey Recruits Players 'Made in Germany'

Republished from Spiegel International Online. Young football players with Turkish roots who have grown up in Germany and cut their teeth in the German football system are in much demand -- particularly in Turkey. At the moment, 59 men who fit this description can be found playing in Turkey's top league. And, every year, agents are bringing a fresh batch of talented young men -- with Turkish passports and "Made in Germany" pedigrees -- to its clubs.

Talent scouts focus their poaching efforts on German clubs with good reputations for devoting a lot of resources to training their younger players, such as Bayer Leverkusen and Borussia Dortmund. They woo the young men -- some of whom have only just turned 16 -- away with promises of seeing regular playing time on a first-division Turkish team, higher pay and a chance to live in Turkey. As Vural puts it: "We're bringing the boys back home."

Aygünes and Basdas are buddies, and they share a double room in the Kasimpasa clubhouse. In the closet, there's is a rolled-up, green prayer mat. A mini-fridge full of snack bars, sodas and energy drinks hums from its position between the beds. Their window looks out onto the stadium; they had to put a shade in front of it because the flood lights are occasionally kept on until late at night. "You can't get any shut-eye," Aygünes complains. Kasimpasa is an Istanbul club. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's prime minister, played for the team when he was younger, and its home stadium bears his name.

Before coming to play for Kasimpasa, Aygünes had only spent time in Turkey on vacation. His German is better than his Turkish. After practice, he recounts over tea how Turkish recruiters reeled him in, how they repeatedly approached him -- whether at games in Karlsruhe, at practice or at home. "They promise you that everything is better in Turkey," he says. "They tell you: 'Come home, come to your country. There, you'll be star.'" At the time, Aygünes only had a few vague offers from second-tier German clubs. So, he opted for an adventure in Turkey. But that's not all: He'll also admit that it had something to do with the dream of every Turkish boy, to one day grow up to don the jersey of one of the big clubs in Istanbul, of Fenerbahce, Besiktas or Galatasaray.

To read the full article by Markus Flohr and Maximilian Popp from Spiegel International Online, please click on the link. Reverse Immigration: Turkey Recruits Players 'Made in Germany'.

Maradona to be offered another four years

Argentina will apparently offer soccer icon Diego Maradona a new 4-year deal as coach of the national team that recently competed in FIFA 2010 World Cup. Now Argentina has the right to do what it likes with its own national team, but maybe it should be very careful with what it wishes for. As a player he was a marvelous tactician and man with sublime skills but he also had, and still has, his dark side.

To go with his skills he also has an ego the size of Brazil. That is not what is needed in a national coach as it can detract from the job he has been appointed to achieve. He was also a cheat, as was demonstrated with his infamous "Hand of God" goal against England in a 1986 World Cup quarterfinal. This goes with a few unkind things to say about the best player ever to take the pitch, the incomparable Pele. Not the ideal, if you know what I mean.

With an astonishing 4-0 loss to Germany in South Africa, causing Argentina to finish well below their stated goal that nothing less than third would be good enough, I think Maradona is a liability not a saviour. Of course, Diego may decline the offer, but I think that's about as likely as Terrell Owens exhibiting humility. I personally believe that he will turn out to be a poor choice if given the reins, and will not last the four year term.