British football has to learn to embrace the likes of the enigmatic Zlatan

Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s stupendous overhead kick against England in last Wednesday’s friendly was rightly celebrated across the football community.

As a finishing touch to his astonishing four-goal salvo in Sweden’s 4-2 victory at the new Stockholm Arena, it offered the perfect riposte to the smattering of deluded fans of English football who have described him as over-rated.

Indeed, such a misjudgment simply confirms British fans’ implicit distrust of the enigmatic footballer whose guile triumphs over mere ‘blood and sweat’.

Ibrahimovic may not be a straightforward personality, but he has performed wherever he has gone. He developed his raw talent at Ajax, and was prolific in Italy at Juventus, Inter and AC Milan.

He even thrived under Pep Guardiola at Barcelona despite being seemingly out of place in a team of diminutive artistes, and is now scoring a goal a game at Carlo Ancelotti’s PSG.

Such a nomadic yet successful career clearly indicates a man whose talent cannot be subdued. Yes, he is prone to bouts of disgruntlement when the game is not going in his favour, but many a Chelsea fan would surely argue that the hulking Swede would have been the perfect replacement for Didier Drogba.

So why have none of the Premier League’s elite so much as cast a coquettish glance at Ibrahimovic?

Perhaps there is simply too much stigma surrounding the perceived brooding arrogance that players like Zlatan exude.

Certainly, the maltreatment of a similarly enigmatic yet brilliant footballer, Fulham’s Dimitar Berbatov, alludes to such prejudices.

After joining Martin Jol’s Tottenham Hotspur from Bayer Leverkusen in 2006, Berbatov was lauded as a suave and charismatic influence in the stolid English game.

However, after joining Manchester United for £30.75m in the summer of 2008, perceptions of Berbatov changed. Despite winning the Golden Boot in 2010 after scoring 20 league goals, suddenly he was lazy and selfish rather than elegant and clinical; despite a record of 48 goals in 108 league appearances, the 31-year-old was derided as a luxury.

Perhaps it was entirely to his detriment to have Wayne Rooney huffing and puffing beside him: ‘Wazza’ is the quintessential English grafter who tackles back, while Berbatov is unfortunate enough to have the gift of making very difficult things look extremely simple.

Selling him to Fulham for £4m, while the likes of West Ham United’s Matt Jarvis demand a fee in excess of £10m, is an insult to the value of a footballing wizard who has the temerity to play the game at his own pace, just because he can.

Fans, managers and FA suits alike continue to ponder the deficiency of technical excellence in the English game, and it is almost certainly because hard work and effort always dwarfs expression of skill.

Ibrahimovic’s hypothetical arrival at Stamford Bridge would have upset the established order, for he would have embarrassed the tiresome ‘blood-and-thunder’ approach of captain John Terry.

If given the choice, England fans would always plump for Scott Parker over Michael Carrick: if the latter is wayward with his passing then he is dismissed as lightweight, whereas at least Parker leaves the field of play with matted hair and a grizzled facial expression.

The Premier League is missing out on players who would diversify its appeal, largely because its viewers ostensibly value ‘grit’ over individual brilliance.

Ibrahimovic and Berbatov aren’t always team players, but when they recreate their limitless individual talent through a breathtaking goal or a moment of trickery, we really should not care.

None of this, of course, is to diminish the value of hard work: the majority of Premier League players are where they are because of their inexhaustible dedication to their profession, nurtured from schoolboy age.

This is simply a plea for football fans not to label the insouciant and casual players of this world as lazy or selfish: let’s embrace the likes of Ibrahimovic and Berbatov, and appreciate the different appeal they offer to the game.