Zlatan Voted Best Swede Ever

By: Martha | January 15th, 2008

Sweet, I’ll make the punch! No wait, that hasn’t happened (yet). But at a big, fancy-dress gala last night, Zlatan Ibrahimovic was named Swedish Footballer of the Year, and also became the first footballer ever to win the much more prestigious Jerring Award, an honor annual bestowed on Sweden’s Sports Personality of the Year, based on public voting.* The man Ray Hudson insists on calling “Ibracadabra” took a whopping 31% of the vote, beating runner-up Susanna Kallur — a wildly popular sprinter, who has won the award in the past — by a substantial margin. (Now if only he would score again for Sweden, maybe the domestic press will get off his back.)

The award is named for Sven Jerring, a Swedish radio commentator who was apparently know and loved for his dry style, and whose face is featured on the trophy. There’s no word, however, on why said trophy seems to be a punch bowl. Anyone?

*The entire national team was given the Jerring Award in 1994 for their third-place finish in the World Cup, but Zlatan is the first individual footballer to be so honored.