Angry Swedish fans have auctioned off the severed nose of a statue of veteran national team striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, protesting against “the commercialization of football” and what they see as a betrayal by the AC Milan star.
The auction, on eBay, reached $610 on Tuesday.
The life-size bronze statue of the Swedish star, erected in his hometown of Malmo in 2019, has been the target of numerous attacks since the player invested in Stockholm-based Hammarby in November 2019, angering fans of Malmo, the club where he started his football career.
The statue’s nose was ripped out in December 2019, before its feet were amputated in January 2020, causing it to fall on the fence that protects it.
Malmö fans reported that they auctioned three replicas of the statue’s nose, which is still missing, “because choosing money over love can cost you dearly”.
“Football was originally a mass movement, but it has increasingly turned into an overly commercialized mass industry, where fans are seen as consumers,” they wrote on the specially designed Vararnasan website, which means “where is the nose” in Swedish. Players and clubs are treated like merchandise.”
They said they intended to use the auction profits in efforts to combat “modern and commercial football and to promote a sport in which the focus is on the love of clubs and the game”.
The artist who made the bronze statue, Peter Linde, was not at all satisfied with the auction, telling the newspaper “Sedsvenskan” that “nose sellers are complaining that football has turned the game into a big business, but they themselves are making money from crime.”
Ibrahimovic, 40, began his football career in the age groups of Malmo, where he was born, and made his way to the first team in 1999 before starting his travels abroad by joining Ajax Amsterdam.
After Ajax, Ibrahimovic began his journey between many major European clubs, starting with Juventus and Inter, passing through Barcelona and Milan for the first time, then Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester United, before returning to the Rossoneri in 2020 after an experience with the American Los Angeles Galaxy. , to contribute to leading him this season to his first title in the Italian League since 2011, when he was also a player in its ranks.