Zlatan Ibrahimovic flirts with international return for Sweden amid age-defying form for AC Milan

Zlatan Ibrahimovic celebrates after scoring AC Milan’s opening goal during their Serie A match against Roma. AP Photo

Stockholm: Zlatan Ibrahimovic on Monday sent a signal that he might be considering an international comeback as he continues to produce show-stopping displays for AC Milan that defy his advancing years.

Ibrahimovic, who turned 39 last month, posted a picture of himself on his social media channels in a Sweden kit with the message “Long time no see”.

However when asked by Swedish sports daily Sportbladet, Sweden’s team manager Stefan Pettersson said he had no recent contact with Ibrahimovic.

Sportbladet also reports the Swedish Football Federation has not contacted AC Milan about the player.

Ibrahimovic, who retired from international football after Euro 2016, has been in superb form since the start of the new Serie A season.

His haul of seven goals in just four matches has made him the league’s top scorer despite missing two of Milan’s six Serie A matches after testing positive for coronavirus.

On Sunday he starred as unbeaten Milan won 2-1 at Udinese to maintain top spot in Serie A, setting up Franck Kessie’s 18th-minute opener before scoring the winning goal from an acrobatic bicycle kick with seven minutes remaining.

Sweden face Denmark in a friendly match on November 11 before taking on Croatia and France in the Nations League over the course of the following week.

They are bottom of Group 4 in League A after losing all four of their matches so far.