Sweden head coach Janne Anderson on Tuesday confirmed veteran striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic will return to the squad for the FIFA World Cup qualifiers at the end of the month.
The 39-year-old AC Milan striker had retired from international football following the 2016 European Championship, after having scored 62 goals in 116 appearances for Sweden.
On Tuesday, he took to Instagram to announce his return to the national team in quintessential style. “The return of the God,” Ibrahimovic captioned a photo of himself in the Sweden kit.
The Swedish Football Association had so far ducked questions about Ibrahimovic’s return after leading Milan’s title charge in the Seria A, but on Tuesday, confirmed him in the squad for the qualifiers against Georgia and Kosovo on March 25 and 28 respectively, as well as the friendly against Estonia on March 31, AFP reported.
Ibrahimovic has been nursing a muscle injury lately but hopes to return to the pitch on Thursday when Milan face his former club, Manchester United, in the Europa League round of 16.
The Swede has made headlines over the years with cheeky hints that he could be returning to the Swedish team.
But things took a more serious turn last autumn when he told media in the Scandinavian country that he missed playing for the team.
Ibrahimovic and coach Janne Andersson then met for talks.
Without “Ibra”, Sweden reached the 2018 World Cup quarter-finals and qualified directly for Euro 2020, which have been postponed to June-July 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
