When in Rome....or in Malmö!

There is the familiar phrase “when in Rome, do as the Romans do”.

So, I decided in October, after reading an interesting article in the newspaper, that “when in Malmö, I would do as the locals do” and go out and meet (or at least observe from a distance, since I didn’t personally meet him) the national football (soccer) hero of Malmö…

Now, you’re probably expecting a name like Erick Johansson or Bertil Bergström, or some other “son” name, right? 

Except that Malmö’s football hero is…..ZLATAN IBRAHIMOVIC!

The son born in Malmö to a Muslim Bosniak father, Šefik Ibrahimović, who emigrated to Sweden in 1977, and a Catholic Croat mother, Jurka Gravić, who also emigrated to Sweden where the couple first met, grew up in the mostly immigrant neighborhood of Rosengård.  He is THE hero of football here in Malmö.

I happened to mention in our language café on one Thursday evening that I was interested in going to see the inauguration of his statue, which had been placed right between the old football station (where he had played for many years) and the new football stadium.  Fun thing you need to know about these stadiums:  they are just about 3km (just under 2  miles) away from where we live.  When Malmö FF, the local team, is in town, we can hear the crowds cheering.  Light blue and white flags and football gear are worn by many in the city when their home team is playing.

I didn’t expect to get any offers actually from anyone who might want to go to the inauguration with me.  But then, the next day, I received a WhatsApp message from one of the young women who comes to language café, asking if we should meet up to go to the inauguration together...which is exactly what we did!  We had such fun.  Picked up the free newspaper that they were giving out, which recorded all the professional milestones in the life of Malmö’s local football hero, who just happens to also be the highest scorer on the Swedish national team.

Waiting for the statue to be revealed....it almost looked like a ghost....it was, afterall, in October that all of this was taking place!

We went early, figuring there would be a lot of people out to join in on the fun.

And there were loads of people.  Loads of excitement.  Loads of mobile telephones recording the event.  And loads of local press and interviews while we waited….and waited…and waited.

And then he appeared.

And then the statue was revealed.

And then it was all over!

Doing like the locals do.

One day I do hope to get to a Malmö FF soccer game.  Don’t ever expect to see Zlatan play a game, since he actually now plays in Los Angeles for the LA Galaxy.

Little bit of local football news from Malmö.

The real thing....statue is 2.4meters tall (8 foot 9 inches); the real live Zlatan is 1.95meters tall (6 foot 5 inches)

Fun afterthought:  two days after the inauguration of the statue, we had to answer a question at our language café:  What is your favorite spot in Malmö?  I answered by saying mine was next to the stadium where the new statue can be found.  It's not quite true, but it certainly was true that first week in October.