Zlatan Ibrahimovic recently stirred up talk of a potential Sweden comeback in a cryptic social media post, which he has now explained.
Ibrahimovic has no plans to come out of retirement to represent the Swedish national team again, despite a social media post hinting otherwise.
The 39-year-old, who retired from international duty in 2016, previously teased the prospect of a comeback back in the 2018 World Cup and stirred up talk of a return once again by sharing an image of himself in the Sweden jersey last week.
Long time no see pic.twitter.com/1VQR3PMh4s
— Zlatan Ibrahimović (@Ibra_official) November 2, 2020
But it turns out Zlatan was simply trying to get under the skin of the people from his homeland.
“No, I was just trying to irritate people in Sweden,” he told Sky Sport Italia.
Ibrahimovic’s announcement came after head coach Janne Andersson ruled out any hope of the striker being recalled to international duty.
The pair, of course, don’t have a great relationship with Zlatan even publicly criticizing Andersson for not selecting Dejan Kulusevski in the starting line-up in the team’s 1-0 defeat to France back in September.
“What a f*cking joke,” he wrote at the time on Twitter. “Further proof. Incompetent people in the wrong positions that suffocate Swedish football.”
The AC Milan star, meanwhile, scored a late equalizer in the club’s 2-2 draw against Hellas Verona on Sunday night to preserve their unbeaten start to the Serie A campaign.