Sweden bid farewell to Zlatan Ibrahimovic with noisy tributes but no goals and exited the European Championship finals meekly after a 1-0 defeat by Belgium. The brash giant of football ended his 116-cap international career on Wednesday with 62 often spectacular goals yet not a shot on target during Sweden's three matches at Euro 2016.
Ibrahimovic brushed away the disappointment of elimination at the group stage and said he was proud of having emerging from "the ghetto" to become Sweden's record goal scorer. "It's heavy, it's disappointing, but at the same time I enjoyed it," he said. "This was my last game in the national team. I have many fantastic memories, because it's a nice story because where I came from, a little... what people call the ghetto, and I made that country my country." Ibrahimovic, 34, was born to a Bosnian father and a Croatian mother in the tough Malmo neighbourhood of Rosengard and had a difficult childhood.
He will be dearly missed by Sweden and many of their opponents as the Zlatan portraits on yellow flags and thousands of Swedish fans chanting his name to the Pet Shop Boys song "Go West" testified. Triumphant Belgian fans in the Nice stadium only slightly spoiled the occasion when they changed the words to "Bye Bye Ibrahimovic."
Ibrahimovic scored at three previous Euro finals but barely got a look-in in France. "I hoped for a better finish for him," said Sweden coach Erik Hamren, who admitted he was losing a rare talent. "I hope we can find another player, not a Zlatan as I don't think in a small country like Sweden you can find someone like that, he's really unique."
"He is a big personality of football, I told him 'bravo' for your career. I was a player myself so I know how it feels when you finish your international career," said Belgian coach Marc Wilmots. "He has done a lot of things for Sweden." Belgium captain Eden Hazard described Ibrahimovic as "a big man in football" "He did a lot of important things. Of course he wanted to go further in this tournament but our objective today was to qualify and we did that," Hazard said.