In spite of what he might believe, Zlatan Ibrahimovic is not above the laws of the game.
Ibrahimovic has made primarily positive headlines since making his move to Los Angeles Galaxy in March, scoring twice in a 4-3 win on his debut for the MLS club.
But the enigmatic Swede found himself in the news for all the wrong reasons on Monday, when he was sent off for slapping an opposition player in the first half of the Galaxy’s 1-0 victory over Montreal Impact.
With just five minutes to go until half-time, Ibrahimovic took umbrage with Michael Petrasso when the Montreal left-back stood on his foot.
Ibrahimovic reacted by slapping the back of Petrasso’s head and while the incident initially went unnoticed by the referee, the decision was reached to send Ibrahimovic off after the Video Assistant Referee was consulted.
VAR has spoken.
Zlatan sees red for the first time in MLS. pic.twitter.com/cdeu9s5gpb
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) May 21, 2018
Despite the 36-year-old’s best efforts at portraying himself as the victim by hitting the deck along with Petrasso, the video technology showed exactly what Ibrahimovic had done and he was given his marching orders.
Petrasso, who received a yellow card for the incident, shouldn’t have been surprised that Ibrahimovic lashed out because, as we’ve seen in the past, even some of his teammates and friends have fallen victim to his striking.
