"Amazing. It was so cruel." This is how Zlatan Ibrahimovic described his trip to the Football World Cup in Qatar during a press conference with the national team on Tuesday.
He elaborated on the reasoning for SVT Sport: "Qatar's system works. The Swedish system? It works but if it works one hundred percent, I don't know."
At the same press conference, Zlatan Ibrahimovic was asked what he wants to happen to the statue of himself.
"It should be in Malmö, nowhere else.
"Stirred up a lot of emotions"
The Zlatan statue was unveiled in Malmö in 2019 but vandalized shortly thereafter. Since the spring of 2020, it has been kept in a secret place. According to Sydsvenskan, the city's efforts to monitor and renovate the statue have cost taxpayers almost SEK 600,000.
In 2020, the municipal board decided that the statue should remain in Malmö. But Zlatan's new Qatari statements have further complicated the issue.
"It's stirred up a lot of emotions. He's outspoken and that doesn't exactly make things any easier. As we see it, it is impossible to place the statue in Malmö at present, says Magnus Olsson (SD), opposition councillor in the city of Malmö.
The Left Party's opposition councillor Emma-Lina Johansson is of a similar opinion.
- Of course these are indigestible statements. Zlatan's game gets ten points, his statements get zero points. This does not make it any easier to have the statue placed in the city of Malmö.
"Hasn't made it any easier"
Ultimately, it is the city of Malmö's ruling parties S, L and MP who decide what will happen to the statue. MP and L have declined interview. Katrin Stjernfeldt Jammeh (S), chairman of the municipal board, has not been able to be reached.
To Sydsvenskan, S's second name in the municipal board Andreas Schönström says: "He did not make it easier for us to put up the statue again".