Euro 2012 Players to Watch: Zlatan Ibrahimovic of Sweden

Let's be honest here: When we think of the Swedish national team, most of us picture Zlatan Ibrahimovic and 10 others.

That's not as much of a hit on the Swedish national team's quality as it is a testament to Ibrahimovic's quality. Sweden's national team actually has a number of talented and capable players—Kim Kallstrom, Sebastian Larsson, etc.—but Ibrahimovic is clearly a cut above his teammates.

What makes Ibrahimovic so incredible, and why do we think he'll be a player to watch in Euro 2012? Read ahead to find out.

In Numbers

Ibrahimovic has scored 29 goals in 75 appearances for Sweden, which at first glance does not look very impressive.

The truth is that Ibrahimovic has never been able to guide his team to success, and being surrounded by players not good enough to compete with the best national teams has limited his goal-scoring.

In addition, Ibrahimovic has boycotted international duty and retired temporarily when the national team failed to qualify for the 2010 World Cup.

Club-wise, though, Ibrahimovic has been a much more dangerous striker, and this year was his best career year, even though it ended without silverware.

Ibrahimovic scored a career-high 35 goals and recorded a career-high 14 assists in 44 matches. If he shows his Milan form with Sweden, the Swedes may just be able to cause a couple of upsets against their more favored opponents in Group D.

What to Expect

Ibrahimovic scored five goals in Euro 2012 qualifying, but those five goals came in only two of the 10 qualifying matches of Sweden, indicating that Ibrahimovic still very much blows hot and cold for his national team.

It's hard to anticipate what Ibrahimovic will show up for the competition in Poland and Ukraine, but I expect he'll get off to a good start against a Ukraine defense weaker than most in the competition. 

Whether he can keep up the momentum in matches against England and France will determine how far Sweden go in the competition.

In Sweden's most recent friendly and international match vs. Croatia, Ibrahimovic was used as a centre-forward at the top of a 4-2-3-1 formation. Ibrahimovic scored and assisted a goal in a 3-1 win, indicating that this will likely be the formation Sweden uses at Euro 2012.

What They Say About Him

Ibrahimovic recently expressed his gratitude to coach Erik Hamren for making Sweden competitive again:

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No question I was disillusioned on the back of missing out on the 2010 World Cup. I think we needed a fresh approach and Erik provided it.

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Even more recently, rumors of a move to Manchester City in exchange for Carlos Tevez seemed to be gathering heavy steam before Roberto Mancini finally moved to quell the rumors in an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport

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Ibrahimovic is a great player, but I don't think Milan want to sell him.

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Here are a couple of tweets from the Twitterverse that echo the thoughts of many on Ibrahimovic:

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Interesting piece on BBC about Zlatan Ibrahimovic, an enigma if there ever was one, still the kind of player ppl talk about

— Haris Akhtar (@HmAkhtar) May 24, 2012"

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"I don't need a Golden Ball to demonstrate that I am number one." Zlatan Ibrahimovic is awesome.

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"— Cheerow Sartory (@CiroSartore) May 24, 2012"

Finally, here's a video of some of Zlatan Ibrahimovic's fine work for Milan this season.

The only question is...will the AC Milan Ibrahimovic show up for Sweden this summer?