Zlatan Ibrahimovic Has Been Dethroned As Sweden's Best Player

After a decade of domination as his country's best player, Zlatan Ibrahimovic is no longer sitting atop the mountain of Swedish football, after failing to win the Swedish Golden Ball for the first time since 2006.

The Manchester United striker has won the award on 10 consecutive occasions between 2007 and 2016 and also once more in 2005. No other Swedish player has lifted the 'Guldbollen' more than twice.

Instead, this year, FC Krasnodar defender Andreas Granqvist scooped the gong, ending Ibrahimovic's grip on the title.

Granqvist succeeded Ibrahimovic as the Sweden captain following the former PSG man's retirement from international football after Euro 2016, where the Swedes were eliminated at the group stage, behind Italy, Belgium and the Republic of Ireland.

Ibrahimovic has been linked with a return to the national team, however, following Sweden's dramatic World Cup play-off qualification victory over Italy, last week, with the 36-year-old also returning from his ACL injury at the weekend, making a substitute appearance during Manchester United's 4-1 victory over Newcastle at Old Trafford on Saturday evening.

And the new United number 10 didn't come away from the Fotbollsgalan awards empty handed, as he won the best attacker prize, following his 28 goal haul for United in his debut season at Old Trafford.

(H/T News18)

Topics: Football News, Football, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Sweden

Joe Baiamonte

Northerner. Assistant Editor of SPORTbible. Studied Journalism and Broadcasting in a portakabin on a car park of Salford University for three years. Believes football peaked with Serie A in the '90s and strong-arms pro wrestling references into as many articles as possible. Neymar once took 50 euros off me during a game of poker.

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