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.

2015 Six Nations Rugby All-Star Tournament Team

As a follow-up to my FIFA World Cup Team, here are my selections for the recently completed RBS 6-Nations Rugby Tournament. In my selections I try to spread the love and select from as many teams as possible. In this case only Italy missed out and they has two contenders in Luke McLean and Sergio Parisse their stalwart caption. Many positions were very difficult to choose an outright leader; for example fullback, where Scotland's Stuart Hogg eventually emerged as winner, as all six fullbacks were exceptional. The Player of the Tournament for me was Ireland's amazing captain Paul O'Connell. The last day of play produced some of the craziest and scintillating results ever, it was mesmerizing. So here they are... again no apologies... it's my team.

My 2014 FIFA World Cup All-Star Team

I meant to put this up after the World Cup was finished, but things just got in the way. So here is my personal 2014 FIFA World Cup All-Star Tournament Team. No apologies for who I selected, after all it is MY team. I don't ever select players I personally dislike, so Luis Suarez (serial biter) and Arjen Robben (serial whiner) aren't even considered. Enjoy.

The 2014 Balls of Stone Award

The 2014 Balls of Stone Award absolutely has to go to Dr Robert Alan Eustace, the Google Senior Vice-President of Knowledge, who broke Felix Baumgartner's parachute high jump and freefall records from the edge of space. This attempt was done quietly, without fanfare, and stunned everyone, including Baumgartner I am sure. Eustace is a 58 year old computer scientist, not a professional athlete, and his feat in my opinion astonishing. Here are the salient facts: On October 24, 2014, Eustace made a jump from the stratosphere. The launch-point for his jump was from an abandoned runway in Roswell, New Mexico, where he began his balloon-powered ascent early that morning. He reached a reported maximum altitude of 135,908 feet—25.740 miles (41.425 km)—but the final number submitted to the World Air Sports Federation was 135,889.108 ft—25.736573 miles (41.419000 km). The balloon used for the feat was manufactured by the Balloon Facility of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Hyderabad, India.His descent to Earth lasted 15 minutes and stretched nearly 26 miles (42 km) with peak speeds exceeding 821.45 miles (1,322.00 km) per hour; setting new world records for the highest free fall jump, and total free fall distance.

Why Nobody Wants to Host the 2022 Winter Olympics

Hosting the games is too expensive!

On October 1, Oslo withdrew its bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics, making it the fourth city—after Stockholm, Lviv, and Krakow—to have second thoughts about hosting the games. With only Beijing and the Kazakhstan city of Almaty left in the running, the International Olympic Committee now faces the difficult task of choosing between two undemocratic nations with less-than-stellar human rights’ records. But Norway’s decision suggests that if the IOC hopes to stem the tide of unwilling hosts, it faces an even more difficult task: reforming itself.

Why doesn’t anyone want the Olympics? Price is a good place to start. The $448,000 cost of the first modern games, held in Athens in 1896, wouldn’t cover a single Danny Boyle-choreographed opening ceremony these days. The total bill for Vancouver’s 2010 winter games came to $6.4 billion, while London’s summertime turn in 2012 cost over $14 billion. Sochi, whose venues and infrastructure had to be built pretty much from scratch, rang in at an anomalous but no less heart-stopping $51 billion.

Those kinds of numbers help explain why even a wealthy nation like Norway would reconsider its candidacy. Although Oslo budgeted a comparatively sober $5.4 billion, and even though the ruling Conservative party initially backed Oslo’s bid, concerns over ballooning costs grew strong enough to chip away at government’s support. Speaking to the press on Wednesday, Prime Minister Erna Solberg confirmed that her government would not continue to pursue the games.

“We’ve received clear advice and there is no reason not to follow the advice,” Solberg told the press. “A big project like this, which is so expensive, requires broad popular support and there isn’t enough support for it.”

Those same concerns were echoed in Sweden earlier this year. “The city of Stockholm needed time to investigate whether the estimated costs were realistic,” says Markus Jonsson, press officer for the Moderate party in Stockholm’s city hall. “But there wasn’t enough time.

Lviv dropped out because of the unstable conditions in Ukraine. But for the other wavering contenders, including St. Moritz and Munich, which as late as November 2013 was still weighing a 2022 bid, a growing awareness of the true costs of hosting the games played an important role in their decisions not to compete. And on top of concerns over cost, there were fears over benefits, too.

To read the rest of this intriguing article, click on the title... "Why Nobody Wants to Host the 2022 Winter Olympics" — by Lisa Abend — Time Magazine.

Derek Jeter - A Prince Among Men

Derek Jeter's final home game was pretty much everything it should be: the hit, the teammates, the

crowd, the spectacle, and the culmination of 20 season of amazing baseball by a true prince. I had to write this farewell to an amazing sportsman, it would not have been fair to let it slide by, just like he did so often stealing a base. What makes it all the more astonishing is not what Jeter has done, but the fact that I love the player but absolutely despise his team. The Yankees, to me, are all that is bad in professional sports, they buy their way to championships, outbidding other teams trying to keep homegrown and home-nurtured talent. I am also a Red Sox fan, say no more. But Derek Jeter is a man and a player who transcends his team, he is so much more and so far removed from other players such as the deservedly hated Alex Rodriguez. Derek Jeter is the epitome of the professional baseball player. I don't want to try and quantify him with stats, just qualify him by the type of person he was and still is. Totally respected and probably loved by fans of every team, everywhere. All hail the Prince. Thank you Derek for all you have given and you are forgiven for beating my Red Sox, on your own really, so many times. The best of the best! You deserve every accolade you have and will receive in your All-Star, Hall-of-Fame career.

America's Cup

I want to record this before the big final race tomorrow. I am a dual national, a citizen of both New Zealand and the United States; and I love both countries. But let me state categorically, that Emirates Team New Zealand were completely robbed of the Cup. When what should have been the final race of the series was called because of time with New Zealand well ahead and four minutes from recapturing the crown is heartbreaking. I know there are rules, and mostly for good reasons, such as protecting lives. But for the Cup to be denied them on a mere technicality when they were so commandingly the best boat, is a travesty of justice.

This rule must be changed for at least the possible final race, so that the rightful winner is rewarded. Having sai, that, this defense has been such a spectacle with such incredible racing that it is a pity that one boat has to be the loser at this late stage. Congratulations to whomever pulls it off, ETNZ or Oracle USA the whole saga has been captivating. My very best to all of you who have sailed.

Maroons!!!

For the Queensland Maroons to beat the New South Wales Blues in the Australian Rugby League State of Origin Series for eight years in a row is nothing short of phenomenal. It is a sporting dynasty unparalleled in other codes. It is not as if NSW didn't throw everything at their northern cousins, including the kitchen sink and a number of howitzers, but still the mighty Cane Toads prevailed. Unbelievable, even after a two point victory in the final match of the series.

Morons

I am a big fan of the Running Utes. My wife graduated from the University of Utah and she is rightly proud of her school and their excellent football team.  It's some of their mindlessly stupid fans that have me shaking my head in both disbelief and anger. They could have cost us a very important game. Ute fans stormed the field three times at the end of the Ute-Cougars game Saturday night and they nearly changed the outcome of the game from their seats, after the punter did his best to undo all his team mates good work (but that's a story for another day).

The drama started on what appeared to be the final play of the game at Rice-Eccles Stadium when a pass by BYU quarterback Riley Nelson hit the turf as time expired. Fans rushed onto the field for the first time, but the game was not over. Officials put one second back on the clock. BYU was given had a chance to tie the score with a field goal attempt, but was blocked by star Lotule Lei. However, the ball was still live when fans ran back onto the field, making it a 15-yard penalty against the Utes and giving the Cougars another attempt at a field goal to tie the game after clearing the fans off the field for a second time.

The game finally came to an end when Riley Stephenson’s kick hit the upright making it no good for the Cougars. Given the few chances for BYU to score after they were brought on by rowdy Ute fans, their conduct should lead to some changes at the U. Arrest and lifetime bans for those who charge field. Drunkenness, stupidity, boorishness and simply not caring past your own loutish fantasies are no excuse for that kind of behavior. The football team (and any other varsity team) work very hard to get their results, and frankly, this one was an upset. Time to get real serious with these losers.

Andy Roddick - One Last Roar

One of my all-time favorite tennis players is calling it quits after both a long, illustrious career and this year's U.S.Open. Andy Roddick has endeared himself to millions of fans worldwide, not just Americans, but everybody. He has been the embodiment of commitment, fearlessness, hard work, sportsmanship and a wonderfully self-deprecatory sense of humor for well over a decade.

Andy is equally well known for his patriotism and desire to play for his country in the David Cup and mentor those younger players the United States has recently blooded. This commitment to American tennis is far deeper than many of his contemporaries who put self above nation. I have high hopes that Andy will continue his march through the later rounds of the 2012 U.S. Open and I would be very happy if he was to win the trophy in his last tournament. It would be only fair for someone who has given so much to the game.