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Soccer star Zlatan Ibrahimovic rents out town square to screen his own game

Xinhua, September 19, 2015 Adjust font size:

Swedish soccer star Zlatan Ibrahimovic announced on Friday he had arranged for a public screening of the Paris Saint-Germain forward's competitive return to his home town of Malmo in November.

Ibrahimovic, who began his professional career at Malmo FF, has rented the main square in Sweden's third-largest city so that residents can watch his current club's game against Malmo on a big screen, daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter reported.

"I've previously guaranteed that the game will be heard in all of Malmo," the 33-year-old announced through his own mobile app.

"Now I've ensured that all of Malmo will be able to see the game. I've booked Stortorget, where the match will be broadcast live," he added.

Ibrahimovic rose through Malmo's youth ranks before joining the senior team in 1999. The striker was sold to Dutch club Ajax for 80 million SEK (9.74 million U.S. dollars) in 2001.

He won league titles at Ajax, Juventus, Inter, Barcelona and Milan before joining Paris Saint-Germain for a reported 180 million SEK (21.9 million U.S. dollars) in 2012.

Ibrahimovic featured this Tuesday when Malmo faced PSG in Paris, but failed to score. The return game in Malmo is on Nov. 25.

"We have seen incredibly big demand for tickets. Thanks to Zlatan's initiative, all Malmo fans will be able to see the game together," Malmo FF CEO Niclas Carlen said in a statement. (1 U.S. dollar = 8.21 SEK) Endit