Zlatan Ibrahimovic is truly a character. The last time we talked about him, he had just scored an amazing back-heel goal in a training session, but he was still very bitter about not qualifying for the World Cup. He even went on to say “One thing is for sure, a World Cup without me is nothing to watch.”
However, Zlatan's latest move has us looking at him in a new light. The intellectually disabled Sweden national soccer team — also known as “The Unkown Team” — recently qualified for the INAS World Cup in Brazil but needed 350,000 kronor ($51,000) to travel there. They struggled to come up with the money, so the coaching staff reached out to professional soccer players to see if they could offer jerseys or cleats that could be auctioned off for money. They received help from various players, but it was an unexpected player that helped them the most. When the coaching staff asked Zlatan for his jersey, he responded in the most Zlatan response known to man: "What the hell are you going to do with a shirt? How much is to go?” The team immediately responded with the amount they needed and Zlatan simply asked for their bank account number and deposited all of the money.
It was an incredible act of kindness by Zlatan, who was very upset when his team lost to Portugal and did not qualify for the World Cup in June. When asked about this random act, Zlatan responded to the Swedish football federation, “When we missed the World Cup, I was deeply disappointed, but when I heard about the ‘Unknown Team’ I said to myself that I wanted to do everything in my power to help them to experience the World Cup…Now I get to experience the World Cup through them."
Incredible story and kudos to Zlatan for making their wish come true!
