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Fresh glimpse of new film about Zlatan's life

The Local Sweden
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Fresh glimpse of new film about Zlatan's life
Zlatan Ibrahimovic back in 2001. Photo: Janerik Henriksson/SCANPIX

The trailer of a documentary shedding new light on Swedish star striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic's journey from talented-but-cocky teenager in Malmö to global football stardom hopes to score with fans.

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The movie 'Den unge Zlatan' (English title: 'Becoming Zlatan') is set to hit theatres in Sweden on February 17th, after it was first shown to audiences at the International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam last month.

It follows the striker from his upbringing in Malmö's rough Rosengård suburb and his quick rise to fame after he was sold from Malmö FF to Ajax for more than 80 million kronor (€8.7 million) in 2001 – the highest sum paid for a Scandinavian footballer at the time.

The trailer is in Swedish, but plenty of the interview material is in English. The two creators, Fredrik and Magnus Gertten, used footage from their time shooting Ibrahimovic during his last two years in Malmö and his introduction to international football in the Netherlands.

“When we first met Zlatan we met a young, open football player who went straight through the screen and we fell in love with his directness. He has an honesty and openness that has also made him a lot of enemies over the years,” Fredrik Gertten said in a press statement earlier this year.

The documentary also features new interviews with football stars including Marco van Basten, Leo Beenhakker, Fabio Capello, Ronald Koeman, Mido and Andy van der Meyde.

“When we decided to make the film and looked at our material we found moments we did not know we had. It wasn't just the funny one-liner Zlatan we found, but also darker sides,” Gertten told Swedish public radio in November.

One of the world's highest-paid footballer – he earns about 200 million kronor a year – Ibrahimovic's flashy lifestyle today is a far cry from his upbringing in Rosengård.

The suburb mainly hits the news over its race-related violence, recently prompting Swedish police to step up their presence in the area.

But the striker has always spoken highly of his upbringing, famously saying, "You can take the boy out of Rosengård, but you can never take Rosengård out of the boy".

READ ALSO: Top-10 quotes from Zlatan Ibrahimovic

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