There is no one like Zlatan Ibrahimovic in football.
A relentless self-promoter, the AC Milan star striker likes to flirt with controversy, but all is forgiven when he is focused and playing his beautiful game.
Zlatan -- he copyrighted his name 17 years ago -- compared himself to F Scott Fitzgerald's memorable character Benjamin Button -- whom Brad Pitt played in the 2008 David Fincher movie of the same name -- while describing his goal-scoring skills.
Zlatan had just guided his club to a 4-1 win over Sampdoria on Wednesday, July 29.
Zlatan -- who turns 39 on October 3 -- scored twice in AC Milan's win, becoming the first player to score 50 Serie A goals for both Milan clubs -- Inter Milan (57 goals) and AC Milan (51 goals).
'They say I am old, but I am just getting warmed up. I'm like Benjamin Button, I've always been young, never old,' Ibrahimovic declared. In the Fitzgerald story and the Fincher movie, the Benjamin Button character ages in reverse.
Ibrahimovic also scored his fastest goal in an AC Milan shirt on Wednesday -- in just three minutes, 22 seconds. His second goal came in the 58th minute.
'It is always great to score, it helps the team, but I did not know it was my fastest goal,' Zlatan said. 'Hopefully, I can keep going like this with the strength to score because at the end of the game I get tired, right?'
'Because they say I am old, but I am just getting warmed up.'
'Everyone has a different mentality in front of goal, you need to be more clinical and aggressive, hungrier to score and when you get the chance you have to put it away. That's what I said when I first arrived when you get the chance because you do not get many,' he added.
'I have played in Italy for seven or eight years and as a striker, I know, you do not get many chances to score,' he pointed out. 'So, when you do, you have to make the most of them and score.'
Fun fact, kind courtesy Wikipedia: Zlatan's -- whose father was a Bosnian Muslim; his mother was Croat Catholic -- 'surname is tattooed in Arabic on the back of his right arm, the names of his sons Vincent and Maximilian on his right arm.'
'He has the Buddhist Five Deva Faces Yantra representing wind, water, fire, creative perception and space, arranged in a way believed to ward off illness and injury, on his lower back,' says Wikipedia.
'Another Buddhist tattoo -- Yant Prajao Khao Nirote -- is a protective emblem intended to end the suffering of a family, is on his upper right arm. The phrase 'Only God can judge me' is tattooed on his ribcage. He also has a feather, a Koi fish, Polynesian tribal, and ace of hearts and clubs.'
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