AC Milan striker, Zlatan Ibrahimovic has tell how hard it was growing up with his parents and how it was in his messy neighborhood.

According to the former LA Galaxy player, he was born in Rosengard, in Malmo Sweden and life in the Swedish Capital wasn’t rossy.

Despite the toils and hard times he faced, he still stood up tall and now his name is sang all over the world.

Ibrahimovic Parents

Zlatan Ibrahimovic is born to a Muslim, Bosniak Dad, Šefik Ibrahimović. His dad migrated to Sweden in 1977. His mom, Jurka Gravić is a Catholic from Croatia who also migrated to Sweden.

Both Ibrahimovic immigrant parents met each other in Sweden where they loved up and became a couple.

The couple divorced when Ibrahimović was only 2-year-old and Ibrahimovic mom was had to cater for her all five children as a single mother. Jurka Gravic was arrested for possession of stolen items. At 9-year-old Ibrahimović was sent to live with his dad.

Ibrahimović early life

Zlatan Ibrahimovic was born in Rosengard, a place he described as a place of crime. The acrobatic player had to live between knifes and guns.

Ibrahimović said he had to steal food and clothes and even bike so he could catch up with football training just be of his passion for football.

“I was born in Rosengard, a place where there was a lot of crime, and my childhood was completely rotten. My father was an alcoholic and my mother was a hard case. When they divorced, I was only 2 years old. There were times when I had nothing to eat, so I stole food, clothes, a bike to go to workouts. I was crazy about football, but I didn’t have money to buy shoes or a ball. I played in the street, barefoot, and that allowed me to develop my skills. Today my name shines, but they’ll never know all that I had to sacrifice, and how hard it was to reach the top.”

David Lagercrantz who co-wrote I Am Zlatan described him Zlatan Ibrahimovic as a complex person.