Zlatan Ibrahimovic is a professional soccer player, one of the world's most prolific strikers, and captain of his native Sweden. He has played for many of Europe's top teams, including Ajax, Juventus, Inter Milan, Barcelona, AC Milan, and, currently, Paris Saint-Germain, where he is the league's leading goalscorer. He is widely regarded as one of the best soccer players of his generation, and is the most highly valued player of all time in combined transfer fees. His bicycle kick for Sweden against England won the 2013 FIFA Award for Goal of the Year. David Lagercrantz made his debut as an author with Ultimate High: My Everest Odyssey, about the Swedish mountaineer Goran Kropp, which became an international bestseller. Since then he has devoted his career to writing about geniuses and exceptional people who go against the flow and blaze their own trails. Lagercrantz achieved critical and commercial success with a novel based on the life of the computer pioneer Alan Turing. He has written several other works of fiction and nonfiction, and he also lectures on creative writing.
“Terrific . . . Far more insightful than your typical jock memoir, Ibra’s book tells his story of growing up as the son of immigrants in Sweden and pulls no punches when it comes to his opinions of some of the biggest names in the game.”—Sports Illustrated “The most compelling autobiography ever to appear under a footballer’s name.”—The Guardian “The story of Zlatan—from his days as an immigrant kid juggling a soccer ball so he won’t get bullied to his emergence as the genius player who scored the greatest goal ever—is as compelling and fancy-footed as his game.”—Aleksandar Hemon, National Book Award finalist and author of The Lazarus Project “I love this book. I love it because it’s so much bigger than soccer. I Am Zlatan is a story of hope and grit and what an immigrant kid who comes from nothing can accomplish with hard work and belief in himself. It’s also a beautiful window into our new, more open, more diverse world.”—Marcus Samuelsson, bestselling author of Yes, Chef “Probably the bestselling European immigrant’s tale since Zadie Smith’s White Teeth . . . Once you get past the obligatory snigger prompted by the phrase ‘footballer’s autobiography,’ you can see that Zlatan’s book strangely resembles an earlier immigrant’s tale: Portnoy’s Complaint.”—Financial Times “He is skillful. He is outspoken. He is Zlatan.”—The New York Times “The best sports autobiography in years.”—PolicyMic