Qatar 2022: Why is Zlatan Ibrahimovic not playing in the FIFA World Cup?

In just one week the biggest tournament in the soccer world will begin. The FIFA World Cup appears as a great opportunity to get as many stars as possible together. This time will not be an exception since Qatar 2022 is going to be full of them, though the historic striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic won’t be there.

There are plenty of reasons for a player to be left out of the competition, so not all stars can be tagged in one group. For example, Sergio Ramos and David de Gea will not represent Spain due to their coach’s decision to go younger at those spots. The other possibility could be injuries, cases that were headlined by Paul Pogba and N’Golo Kante in France.

But the histrionic and really talented Ibrahimovic pops up in a different category. His long trajectory in the sport marks him as one of the best attackers of this century, having scored goals everywhere and in every way. That’s why the Swedish seems like someone that should be in the FIFA World Cup that is about to begin in Qatar.

Why is Zlatan Ibrahimovic missing the Qatar 2022 World Cup?

Ibrahimovic has been a remarkable player almost since he started playing professionally. He played in a lot of great clubs and succeeded in all of them, but this time he will not be a protagonist in the big stage. His situation can be compared to the ones of Mohamed Salah and Erling Haaland as to why he won’t play this FIFA World Cup. The attacker is eligible to play for Sweden, of course.

Although his country wasn’t one of the 32 that made the cut. There were 13 spots distributed by the UEFA to the European national teams via qualifiers, but they couldn’t grab one of those. They were very close, though it wasn’t enough. Spain, Greece, Georgia and Kosovo were the squads they shared group B with. They even beat the Spaniards early on, but they couldn’t stay on course until the end.

Therefore, they had to go through the playoffs after finishing in the second place. In the first round, the Swedish defeated Czech Republic in overtime, though that was their last win. The final game had them losing 2-0 in Poland, so they were eliminated. Ibrahimovic has been dealing with injuries lately, although the 41-year-old star wasn’t going to be able to play in the FIFA World Cup anyway because his team didn’t qualify for it.

Using this World Cup Predictor, you can see every potential outcome of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.