Eleanor Roosevelt once said of her husband, ex-POTUS Franklin Delanore Roosevelt, that he didn’t think, he decided. The control and confidence alluded to in Elenore’s description of her husband go a long way to describing the play of modern-day superstar Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic spoke of this control and confidence when he spoke to UEFA.
"I have never been better," he said. "The way I feel today is the best I have ever been. I was born old and I will die young. That is how it looks.
"I appreciate it [the special moments] because I think everything is in your head. It's a mental thing.
"You are as young and fresh as you think you are and that is what I have proved this season, by doing the things I am doing. So the age is just a number.
"Your head decides how young you are and how old you are. So this year I decided I am very young."
Photo: @SkyFootball | Twitter
We have heard that success is a state of mind, but deciding that you are young takes things to a whole new level. The crazy part is that if we can trust that Zlatan really did ‘decide to be young,’ it seems to have worked.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic is having the most prolific scoring year in his career and by far his best year at Paris Saint-Germain.
His form in 15/16 has allowed the Swede to score 39 goals in 42 matches, at a rate of one goal every 86 minutes. It is an astonishing accomplishment for a player who, at 34 years old, is supposed to be on the decline.
But a decline couldn’t be further from Zlatan’s mind, and he went to to tell UEFA about his club’s ambitions in the Champions League.
"I play for trophies — whatever trophy I can win, I will do everything in my power, in my sacrifice, to win [the Champions League]. Absolutely.
"So if we can win it, we want to win it. The players on the pitch want to win everything. That's why we are here, to train, to focus, to prepare and to do it. So let's see.
"Every time [the aim has been] to go further, but so far we haven't gone further. You can always wish, but you need to [put in the performances] in the two games you play.
"We are a better team this season. And we have more experience this season, so the club – no, not the club, but the new team, let's say, that was reborn a couple of years ago – is more used to the quarter-finals."
With those words and that rate of production, it looks like Zlatan Ibrahimovic and PSG have the best chance to win the Champions League they have ever had.
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