Manchester United manager José Mourinho felt that striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic should have won at least one FIFA Ballon d’Or award in his career.
Ibrahimovic remains as one of the most prolific players to have never won the award. Apart from being prolific on a personal level, Ibrahimovic has also won numerous major honours with the club. He is one of the few players in the world to have one major titles with several top clubs. In fact, very few players have been able to claim successes with the likes of Barcelona, Inter Milan, Juventus, AC Milan, Paris St Germain, and lately, Manchester United.
Despite his achievements, Ibrahimovic has not been provided the ultimate individual accolade. It may have been largely down to the dominance of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi when it comes to the FIFA Ballon d’Or award. Now that the award has been split up into the FIFA World Player of the Year and the Ballon d’Or award, it remains to be seen if the dominance will be broken.
Jose Mourinho shares a great relationship with Ibrahimovic, and he is extremely saddened by the fact that the Swede has not been recognised on a personal level until now. Mourinho has managed only one FIFA Ballon d’Or award recent winner – Cristiano Ronaldo. His former player Wesley Sneijder came close to winning the trophy in 2010.
''What Zlatan has done is amazing, the number of goals he has scored for the club is great and I think he deserve to be named the next world footballer of the year. I can't just believe that despite all his achievements, he has not won the award and I want him to be considered for it in the next edition,” said Mourinho. The Portuguese manager has stated that he would like to keep Ibrahimovic at the club beyond the summer.
