Zlatan Ibrahimovic just ended his experience as the co-host of the Festival di Sanremo – Italy’s most popular music competition. He was praised for how comfortable and natural he appeared on the stage, simply acting like…himself.
For those who don’t know the Festival and what it means in Italy, think of it as a five-day long World Cup Final that is played every year. Only that it does attract a larger audience than the World Cup itself in the Belpaese.
When you are invited to take part to the Festival, regardless of your role, it means you have reached a cult status in Italy. You are part of the Country’s popular culture.
Zlatan had achieved that status even before coming back to Milan in early 2020, as he had already spent eight seasons playing in Italy from 2004 to 2012. But nobody would have ever thought to invite him to Sanremo back in the days. A grumpy, confrontational football player would have had no part in the Festival.
Yet, it happened now. Ibra was invited to the Festival di Sanremo and was simply told to be himself. To play his character.
And so, the gigantic Swedish striker was seeing towering over main host Amadeus on the Sanremo stage for four nights. He joked about the stage not being big enough for him (surely not for his ego). He told Amadeus how much he should be honored to have Ibra there. He kept reminding him that this was Ibra’s Festival, not anyone else’s, and pretended to set his own “rules.”
Basically, he acted like he totally owned the place, pretending to tell some veteran TV professionals how to do their jobs despite having zero experience in the field.
Ibra in San Remo: "I brought the new rules, now there are 22 participants, 11 vs 11.”
Amadeus: “But Ibra, there are 26 singers already, this is not football.”
Ibra: "Sell them to Liverpool who are looking for 4 defenders.” pic.twitter.com/EwJXXoD69P
— Rossoneri (@rossonero_fans) March 2, 2021
And the thing is, the gag worked.
It worked because over time Ibra has learned how to play his character. The young, arrogant bully from the Malmo dockyards turned into a clever professional who now knows how to market himself even outside of a football pitch. He has become his very own brand. He turned being excessively full of himself and cocky into a very unique trademark.
His pretentions of almightiness are so exaggerated that they have a comic effect. Ibra knows that. He uses that to his advantage, mixing looks, timing, and pauses like a navigated comedian. Perhaps this is something that he ironed out during his experience with Los Angeles Galaxy. Hollywood turned him into a real performer.
What makes him even more convincing is that his Zlatan routines seem to be genuinely impromptu and coming to him naturally. During an interview with the Los Angeles press, after lashing against the way the VAR was used in the MLS, he remarked:
“I don’t wanna be too critical or something because maybe the MLS will punish me but…”
(Pause)
“…but I am MLS, so no worry about that.”
This doesn’t mean that his character is just a public persona and, after all, Zlatan Ibrahimovic doesn’t really think he is the coolest thing on Earth. He firmly believes he is. But he has learned to joke about it. The comic effect lies in the fact that, whenever Zlatan tells you that he is the best football player ever, you are left with the subtle ambiguity that, though saying it in a funny way, he seriously means it.
Not many players could get away with that. Ibrahimovic is neither the first nor the last footballer with a difficult personality, but he is one of the very few (perhaps only Eric Cantona comes to mind…) that has managed to turn brashness into a charismatic aura.
“Let me tell you something: If Zlatan can fail, you can fail too,” he conceded in a motivational monologue during his last night at the Festival, admitting that yeah, maybe, after all, he is also human. But there is a reason why he achieved what he achieved in his career, and why he keeps going strong on the pitch at 39 years of age. He invited people to keep showing up and improving despite failures, adding his own recipe for success: “Commitment, dedication, consistency, and concentration.”
This is how he built his unshakable self-confidence and made it the armor to sustain his cockiness. There is reason to believe he will use the same recipe successfully in the future when the time comes for him to hang his boots and recycle the Zlatan brand in a different way.
Because that moment, like it or not, will come at some point. The time will come for him to abandon that football world that made him ascend to a god-like status, and step into a new life. One where he will no longer be a player, but surely enough will still be Zlatan.