A big hole is emblazoned in his face: Vandals have once again tampered with the statue of soccer superstar Zlatan Ibrahimovic in Malmö. Unknown perpetrators sawed off the statue of the great Swede from the nose and toe of the left foot. This was reported first by the newspaper Kvällsposten.
The damage can be clearly seen on photos there. In addition, the once golden statue was painted over with silver paint.
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Statue of Zlatan Ibrahimovic: attack with a sawIbrahimovic's image, which had only been set up in October, has been repeatedly damaged since the striker joined Hammarby IF. Unknown persons had thrown smoke torches at the huge statue in late November and sprayed it onto the floor "Cigani dö" (Bosnian for "Gypsy" and Swedish for "dies"). The word "Judas" was emblazoned on the door of his house in Stockholm.
Investigation into racially motivated threats
Ibrahimovic has now filed a complaint. "We are investigating vandalism and racially motivated threats," said a police spokesman a few weeks ago: "Zlatan Ibrahimovic is the plaintiff."
Fans of his home club Malmö FF see their commitment to the first league rival as a betrayal of their idol. At the end of November, strangers had hung toilet glasses over the statue's arm. An online petition demanding that the statue be removed immediately had previously collected thousands of signatures.
The three and a half meter sculpture was donated by the Swedish Football Association. "When you come to Sweden, you want to see this statue - not the king's," the 38-year-old Ibrahimovic had said generously at the unveiling.
Ibrahimovic joined Malmö FF in mid-1995, playing for the professionals in 40 games from 1999, scoring 16 goals before moving to Ajax in the Dutch league in 2001. The attacker played 116 times for the Swedish national team and is his country's top scorer with 62 goals.
