Ibrahimovic has made 63 appearances in his international career, scoring 23 goals. He had the decision of either playing for Bosnia, Croatia or Sweden. Zlatan went for the latter as it was his country of birth and felt most connected too.

Ibrahimovic made his debut in January 2001, whilst he was playing for Malmo FF. The match was against minnows Faroe Islands, and it disappointingly ended 0-0, although it was only a friendly. His first competitive game came in a qualifier for the 2002 World Cup, against Azerbaijan. Ibrahimovic didn’t feature much in the qualifying campaign, nor did he play at all in the actual tournament as Sweden lost at the last 16 stage to Senegal.

The next major tournament came in 2004; the European Championships in Portugal. Sweden successfully qualified for the tournament, as with Ibrahimovic having 3 consecutive seasons at Ajax, where he had impressed; he was tipped to be in the first eleven. The first match of the Euros for Sweden was against Bulgaria. Ibrahimovic scored a penalty in the 5-0 thrashing against Bulgaria as Sweden were off to a dream start. The next match was to be tougher, as Italy have a well known record in World Cup’s and European Championships. Ibrahimovic’  goal against NAC in the Dutch league in 2004 made most people become aware of his talents, but this late equalizer was to make Ibrahimovic renowned worldwide. Losing 1-0, Ibrahimovic cheekily flicked the ball with the outside of his foot in and managed to evade everyone and land in the top corner of the net. This result helped Sweden qualify to the quarters, and after a 2-2 draw with Denmark in their final game; they topped the group. However, they were to go on to lose in the quarter finals against Holland on penalties, and Ibrahimovic missed on the penalties.

Two years later Sweden managed to qualify for another major tournament, this time it was the World Cup 2006, in Germany. During this tournament he had been at a Juventus side that won 2 titles in a row, and was thought to be one of the best strikers around. However, he failed to make an impact at the tournament, as he didn’t score or create any goals. Sweden lost to hosts Germany in the second round. Qualifying for the next tournament, Euro 2008 in Austria and Switzerland, Ibrahimovic didn’t manage to score once. However, once the actual tournament started, he scored a thunderbolt against current holders Greece, which was his first competitive goal in over 2 years, which Sweden won 2-0. He then scored in the 2-1 defeat of Spain, who were eventual winners. Sweden then lost to Russia and failed to make it out the group stage. Sweden then failed to qualify for World Cup 2010 in South Africa, and Ibrahimovic only scored just the two goals in qualifying as Denmark and Portugal finished above them in the group.