Zlatan Ibrahimovic might want to take a break from checking his mentions on social media for a day or two.
While he was initially somewhat bitter about being left out of Sweden’s World Cup squad, the veteran forward got behind his country and was so confident in Sweden’s ability to get past England in the quarter-final that he proposed a friendly bet with David Beckham.
Ibrahimovic offered to pay for dinner at a venue of Beckham’s choosing if the Three Lions progressed while the former England international would have to take Ibrahimovic shopping in IKEA if Sweden made it to the semi-finals.
As it turned out, Gareth Southgate’s side encountered very little difficulty as they reached the final four of a World Cup for the first time in 28 years and now Ibrahimovic must pay his debt.
The terms of the deal have been set 😂 #SWEENG pic.twitter.com/9bJ3D5nHWv
— LA Galaxy (@LAGalaxy) July 6, 2018
Beckham didn’t hang about when it came to reminding his former teammate that he will now have to sport an England jersey at Wembley while enjoying some fish and chips.
Ibrahimovic strikes us as a man of his word so we can’t see him reneging on this.
Beckham and Ibrahimovic have a shared history of several clubs with both lining out for Paris Saint-Germain immediately after separate spells at AC Milan.
And they’ve clearly remained close because Beckham played a role in convincing Ibrahimovic to join current club LA Galaxy earlier this year.
“I met David when I played in PSG and he talked a lot about Galaxy, the experience he had in America, he was all positive,” Ibrahimovic said in an interview with the MLS.
“He was like: ‘You should come over, go over, and try it out, play there’.
“He said everything is fantastic, it’s in progress, but to be part of it is something amazing and something he was proud of.
“So I’m just happy to get all these words because it makes it easier for you when you have to choose whatever you want to do for the next step.
“And like I said, this thing was supposed to happen before but it didn’t happen, but it’s happening now, so it’s the destiny.”
