Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Megan Rapinoe and Crystal Dunn are the three soccer players in ESPN Body Issue 2018, the tenth edition of its kind. ESPN hadn't featured more than two soccer players since the first Body Issue back in 2009.
In the build up to the World Cup, Zlatan had been quoted as saying that there is no such thing as a World Cup without Zlatan. This led many to believe that he would come out of international retirement and play for Sweden in its first World Cup since 2006. Although Sweden manager Janne Andersson ultimately decided to go with the group that got through qualifying, this Zlatan tweet shows that both sides have officially moved on.
Heading into the MLS World Cup break, the Los Angeles Galaxy got a much-needed 3-0 victory over Real Salt Lake on Saturday night with Zlatan Ibrahimovic heading in his side’s first two goals at the StubHub Center.
Five minutes before opening the scoring in the 61’, Ibrahimovic clashed with RSL defender Sunny following a scramble in the goalmouth that the visitors just managed to clear.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic had one bad case of the Mondays for the LA Galaxy. Playing in a rare Monday afternoon match against the Montreal Impact, Ibrahimovic was shown red for a petulant slap upside the head of Michael Petrasso in the 41st minute. To make matters worse, Ibra then made a slow, unconvincing move to the ground to pretend to be injured.
It should come as no surprise given what transpired on his debut, but Zlatan Ibrahimovic hasn’t exactly reached the heights expected of him in Los Angeles. Yes, his return of three goals and three assists in only 487 minutes is quintessential Zlatan, but the big Swede is also a legend for another reason: winning.
The MLS Players Association released salary data for the 2018 season this week, and we now know the MLS highest paid players for the current campaign.
It’s official. Everyone hoping for a Zlatan Ibrahimovic World Cup can calm down now. The swaggering Swede announced on Thursday morning he will indeed be in Russia for this summer’s tournament.
But he won’t be playing with Sweden — he’ll be playing for Team Zlatan.
The Stanley Cup playoffs took a blow on Sunday when Brad Marchand and the Boston Bruins were knocked out in the second round. The NHL, hockey fans will note, reprimanded Marchand after he twice licked opponents during the postseason. But it got us thinking, who in the soccer world is most likely to be asked to stop licking players?