August 14 – Zlatan Ibrahimovic has donated £30,000 to the Swedish intellectually disabled team in order to get them to the 2015 Inas Football World Cup that has just kicked off. The tournament is for para-athletes with an intellectual disability and will be held in Sao Paolo, Brazil from August 13-23.
The eight-team tournament consists of hosts Brazil, reigning world champions Saudi Arabia, Germany, France, South Africa, Poland, Japan and Sweden.
The Swedish team had been struggling to find the 350,000 kronor to fund their venture and so reached out to some Swedish international stars for help. They asked for autographed shirts from players including Kim Kallstrom, Andreas Isaksson, Per Nilsson, Johan Elmander and Ibrahimovic, intending to auctioning these off.
However, their modest requests were put in the shade after a single act of generosity. Ibrahimovic decided to take matters into his own hands by depositing all of the required money into the appropriate bank account, subsequently becoming the team’s official ambassador.
Ibrahimovic said on the Swedish football federation’s website: “Football should be played by anyone, regardless of gender, disability or not. And when we missed the World Cup, I was deeply disappointed, but when I heard about ‘The Unknown Swedes’ I said to myself that I wanted to do everything in my power to help them to experience the World Cup. There was nothing to think about. Now I get to experience the World Cup through them.”
The manager of the team, Stefan Jonsson, was rightly excited by the generosity of the gift, saying: “It’s unbelievable, incredible, fantastic. I still have to pinch myself to believe it’s true. Thanks to Zlatan a life-long dream will soon become reality for all of us involved.”
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