Even the more casual soccer fans must know of Zlatan Ibrahimović and his acrobatic goals, so it makes sense that Ryusei Shido from BLUE LOCK reminds them of him. There are a ton of real life soccer references within the anime, but this one is the one most relevant right now after Shido’s awakening in the latest episode.
For those who don’t follow real soccer and may have never heard of him, Zlatan Ibrahimović is a Swedish soccer player who is widely considered one of the greatest strikers of all time. He won 34 trophies in his career, with a total of 570 goals scored. He has played for many of the biggest teams, including Inter Milan, Barcelona, AC Milan, and Manchester United.
His longest spell was at the French Paris Saint Germain (PSG), where he scored 113 goals in 122 matches.
Another fun fact is that the author of the manga revealed in 2021 that Shido’s favorite soccer player is Ibrahimović.
It wouldn’t mean much to just read, so let’s take a look at some of the goals that were most likely used as inspiration. Going from the latest episode backwards, we’ll start with arguably Zlatan Ibrahimović’s most famous goal, or “Big Bang Drive” as Shido called it.
He scored it in a friendly match for Sweden against England. With Joe Hart as the opposing goal keeper, Zlatan ran for the goal. Hart decided to head the ball as he was outside the penalty zone, but he didn’t do send it far enough. Still, little did he expect that Zlatan would launch a 30-yard bicycle kick straight into the net. Also, this was Zlatan’s fourth goal in the 4:2 win (yes, he scored all of them).
Zlatan also has a reputation of making self-assured and sometimes humorous, narcissistic comments during interviews and press conferences. When asked about the goal above, he said:
“You can’t coach brilliance like that.”
Some of Zlatan’s other famous quotes are:
- “I can’t help but laugh at how perfect I am.”
- “Swedish style? No. Yugoslavian style? Of course not. It has to be Zlatan-style.”
- “It’s true I don’t know much about the players here, but they definitely know who I am.” (When he moved to the French Ligue 1)
- “There was the thought that this would send me into retirement. I sent their entire country into retirement.”
- “A World Cup without me is nothing to watch, so it is not worth waiting for the World Cup.”
- “I don’t give a s–t who wins. I’m going on holiday.”
- “I can play in the 11 positions because a good player can play anywhere.”
- “I don’t think that you can score as spectacular a goal as those of Zlatan in a video game — even though these games are very realistic these days.”
- “I came like a king, left like a legend.” (When he left PSG)
- “I won’t be the King of Manchester, I will be the God of Manchester.”
- “I don’t believe in God. I believe in Zlatan.”
Going to his previous goal in the U-20 Japan match, Ryusei Shido received a perfect pass from Sae and launched an unexpected shot over Chigiri to the right corner. Zlatan did a similar thing against France. Just like the goal above, this was also in 2012. Shido called it the “Dragon Drive.”
Moving on to Ryusei Shido’s wild backheel shot from BLUE LOCK Season 2 Episode 2, Zlatan Ibrahimović had several of those. Check 0:45 below for the closest one I could find for this comparison.
As for his other goal in the tryout match, I couldn’t quite find the best example. Zlatan has a bunch of great long-range goals you can find in any compilation on YouTube.
Despite BLUE LOCK being able to go over-the-top as an anime, Zlatan Ibrahimović is no less exciting to watch. His acrobatics made him stand out, and we can look forward to seeing more of that in Ryusei Shido.
BLUE LOCK Season 2 is now only 1 episode away from the double-episode finale on December 28, and we can expect to see Shido give it his all as he aims to complete his hat-trick and get Sae’s contact info.
BLUE LOCK ©Muneyuki Kaneshiro, Yusuke Nomura, Kodansha/”Blue Lock” Production Committee
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