It’s official: Zlatan Ibrahimovic is leaving Paris Saint-Germain as soon as his contract expires this summer. The French chapter of his legendary career has closed, but a new chapter will soon open. On July 1st, he will be a free agent, able to sign with whomever he wants, anywhere in the world.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic is leaving Paris Saint-Germain and will have no shortage of suitors
One era is over in Zlatan’s career, but where is the next one going to take place?
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The question on everyone’s mind, however, is where Zlatan goes. The superlatively talented Swedish international has played for some of the biggest clubs in the world, and even though he’s slowed some at 34 years old, Ibrahimovic proved this season with PSG that he’s well capable of making a big impact for a big club. Zlatan will have no shortage of teams interested in signing him, but just where will he go?
This will, presumably, be the last big contract that Zlatan signs in his career -- and perhaps the last one, period. If he’s going to go out, he’ll want to do it in as big a blaze of glory as he can muster. Where will that blaze be centered, though? That’s a tough question to answer, but one for which we’ll hopefully have an answer soon.
The Premier League: Chelsea or Manchester United
There are two high-profile English teams who will have openings at striker next season, and both Chelsea and Manchester United are teams to which Ibrahimovic has been connected in the past and can easily afford him. The problem, however, is this: with neither side playing in the Champions League next season, will Zlatan actually want to play for either team?
Zlatan loves a big stage, loves that high level of competition against the best of the best. Even as he’s aged, he’s held up well in such big matches, and he might not want to go without it just yet, especially as a Champions League winner’s medal has still eluded him in his fantastic career. Still, having the chance to be The Guy at one of the biggest clubs in England and Europe has to have some appeal to Ibrahimovic -- conquering the EPL is, after all, the one major career goal other than winning the Champions League that Zlatan wants to achieve. Having the chance to do so, and dragging along a team that disappointed this season in doing so, would have to be tempting.
Of course, both teams are believed also to be courting younger, more long-term options at striker, most notably Napoli's Gonzalo Higuain. He would, however, command a high transfer fee, with his club demanding his full €94 million release clause. With that added to wages that wouldn't be much lower than Zlatan's, either Chelsea or Manchester United could easily see the big Swede as a cheaper alternative.
Money Abroad: MLS, China, or the Middle East
Failing the major club option, Zlatan could aim at getting one last major payday before sailing off into the sunset. That would mean a move away from Europe, but he wouldn’t lack for interested parties. Ibrahimovic has long been linked to a move to America and Major League Soccer, and on Thursday rumors spread hot and heavy that he has a move to Los Angeles lined up if he wants to take it -- with some rumors and reports calling it a near-lock that this is his next move.
It's assumed by many that he would move to the Los Angeles Galaxy, a regular MLS Cup contender and one of the most successful, high-profile teams in the relatively young league's history. They're the same team that once brought in David Beckham and currently host such stars as Robbie Keane, Giovanni dos Santos, and Steven Gerrard. If any player was meant for the Hollywood spotlight, it's Ibrahimovic, and being the center of an LA Galaxy side bent on continental dominance could be attractive to Zlatan.
That said, the initial reports weren't specific as to which LA team Zlatan is heading to, and some believe his destination might be Los Angeles Football Club, an expansion side that has yet to take the pitch and won't for several years yet. Such a move would let Ibrahimovic be a major draw for the fledgling club, spreading the team's name around as he spends time away on loan with a big European side as an ambassador of sorts, then drawing major crowds once the team finally does open its doors.
Alternatively, Zlatan could move to one of the megarich clubs in the Middle East or China, recently popular destinations for older stars who lack a good fit on the continent and who want a big payday. Any of the three options -- MLS, the Middle East, or China -- would make Zlatan the unquestioned biggest star of either region, something that would certainly appeal to him, and they would pay him extremely richly -- the only question is whether or not he would find the level of competition to be worth his while.
A Retirement Reunion: AC Milan or Malmö
Of course, if Zlatan decides to make what will presumably be his last contract into a retirement tour, he might just want to get nostalgic and revisit his roots. Malmö is his home town and the club with which he started his illustrious career, so there would be a certain symmetry to him ending it there. They don’t have the money he’s used to, sure, but maybe he’s got it in him to make one grand gesture in his career, taking a smaller payday to help raise the profile of his hometown team for awhile.
Ibra has also been heavily linked to a return to Italian shores with AC Milan, in the country where he spent so much of his career and with the club where he enjoyed perhaps some of his greatest personal success, scoring at nearly a goal-a-game pace while winning his sixth Serie A title -- though two of those don't really count thanks to Juventus' role in the calciopoli scandal. Milan's star has fallen significantly since he left for PSG, though, struggling to be even remotely competitive in the league over the last few years. Him arriving alongside potential new Chinese owners could help lift the club back into the spotlight, however, and that could be a very attractive proposition to Zlatan as he looks to make a major impact in the waning years of his career.
Somewhere else entirely
There's been a near-limitless list of clubs that Zlatan has been linked to over the last couple of years, and until an official announcement is made he'll be linked to all of them all over again. Bayern Munich, Manchester City, Liverpool, Arsenal and Real Madrid are all high-profile teams for which he has yet to play, and all have been rumored to want him at one time or another -- and all could plausibly have a spot for him next season. His agent has even claimed that Italian side Napoli are the club where Ibra wants to end his career if he had his way, though their owner's methodology and policies would make such a move difficult at best.
It's unlikely we see Zlatan move to any of these clubs, though. There are too many hurdles, too many reasons such a move wouldn't happen to make it particularly feasible, especially when looked at against the far more likely scenarios already examined. It wouldn't be the most shocking thing if we did see Zlatan head somewhere else -- he's tough to predict, after all -- but if you were to set betting odds that he ends up at any one of these clubs, they would be odds nearly as long as the ones Leicester City were given at winning the EPL before this season.
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In the end, it’s hard to say just quite where Zlatan Ibrahimovic is going next. His options are vast, and he’s so mercurial it’s almost impossible to predict what he wants to do. The Los Angeles option is the most-discussed one at the moment, but there are so many viable options for him that a sudden swerve in direction is entirely feasible. Heck, the MLS angle may just be a smokescreen for something else being worked on behind the scenes -- with Zlatan, you can never tell.
What is for certain, though, is that even at 34 years old, Ibrahimovic will be a force wherever he winds up -- and that wherever he goes, it’s going to be a very, very big deal. After all, he is Zlatan.
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