Starboard Quality


COMPLEX HE MAY BE, BUT ZLATAN IBRAHIMOVIĆ’S


MOTIVES BEHIND BECOMING THE LATEST FOOTBALLER TO INVEST IN HIS OWN LITTLE SLICE OF LUXURY ARE AS CLEAR AS THE WATER IT FLOATS ON WORDS: RICHARD ALDHOUS


G


iven the level of soccer sorcery that Zlatan Ibrahimović puts on show every time he steps out onto the football pitch, it’s little surprise to find


similar levels of flair and exuberance in the way he goes about his personal life.


The Swede, born in Malmo to a Bosnian father, Sefik, and Catholic mother, Jurka, has provided for admirers and onlookers a mass of contradictions in a glittering playing career – they are puzzles and complications he thrives on.


Firstly, there’s the brutish, confrontation, aggressiveness of his on-field combat which, let’s be honest, is totally at odds with the graceful, gliding, almost glamorous way he plays the beautiful game.


Then there’s an agelessness that sees the now 39-year- old continue to perform at the top level – he’s even gained cult status at current employers AC Milan despite having previously played for their fiercest rivals Inter.


There’s his faith – in his childhood he was encouraged to uphold the values of both Catholicism and Islam (courtesy of his parents’ respective views), yet his body art, curiously, leans more towards Buddhism; while he attributes football as his “one true religion – godlier than any other in my life.”


And finally, it’s difficult not to look past a rather complicated relationship with the press. What we have here is a man


entrenched in the 24/7 of modern sport. You feel, even in retirement, his status will remain such that Ibra will be just as much in demand as he is now. And yet his private life is private, and fiercely protected.


It’s probably because of that last point that we feel flattered that one of the most decorated sportsmen of a generation – and yet, with not even a Champions League final appearance to his name… another wild contradiction – embraces his passion for yachts in a very public way.


“Perhaps it is because I spend so much of my life on grass, on flat ground, that I look for something different away from the sport,” he begins. “It’s not something I’ve thought about too much, but you won’t find me on a walking holiday… I need to do something different with my time away from competitive sport – I need to find a different place.”


That ‘different place’, as he calls it, is a 98ft yacht. The spectacular craft comes from the Riva stable, and when rumours began circulating in 2018 that the former Ajax, Juventus, Barcelona, PSG, Manchester United and LA Galaxy frontman was in the market for a boat, all eyes were set on his next move.


“Almost there” came the message on his Instagram feed, with a picture of a 100 Corsaro undergoing final checks in the manufacturer’s iconic shipyard in Spezia, on Italy’s north-west coast.


ONBOARD | SPRING 2021 | 23


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