Chelsea Return to Offer Clues to Zlatan Ibrahimovic's Paris Saint-Germain Future

There are not many occasions on which one would feel sorry for Zlatan Ibrahimovic—or, indeed, scenarios in which the Sweden captain would want anyone’s sympathy. He will return to the scene of one of those rare instances this week, however, when he leads Paris Saint-Germain into their UEFA Champions League last-16 return leg at Chelsea.

It was in the corresponding fixture last season that Ibrahimovic was wronged, flabbergasted to be shown a straight red card instead of a yellow by referee Bjorn Kuipers for a late challenge on Oscar. Much was made at the time of a gaggle of Chelsea players surrounding Kuipers in the immediate aftermath of the foul—as Phil McNulty chronicled for BBC Sport—but PSG’s captain still might have expected greater clemency from the Dutch referee.

It is hard to believe that this won’t be on Ibrahimovic's mind, certainly more so than the recurrent tattle of his apparent shortcomings in the knockout stages of the Champions League. How much he means to his club is particularly germane as he enters the final four months of an expiring contract, with no definitive word from player or club on whether it will be renewed or not.

Whether Zlatan should stay or go is a genuine dilemma, on both sides, never more crystallised than in the context of this return visit to Stamford Bridge. While there is genuine desire among his team-mates for him to stay at the club (as Blaise Matuidi and Thiago Silva expressed after the recent home win over Reims, on camera to Le Parisien, in French), there is also a sense that PSG’s Champions League fate might condition his thinking.

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Silva, for example, who has played with Ibrahimovic continuously at Milan and now Paris for going on six seasons, said that he believed his team-mate wanted to stay, but that maybe winning the Champions League would change his mind.

This would make a certain amount of sense, being the only notable gap in his club CV. Where else would there be to go with Ligue 1’s behemoth? To try and win the domestic title by 30 points next season?

Yet Ibrahimovic has always been insistent that he wasn’t going to get hung up on winning the Champions League. “If I don’t win it,” he told Qatari media (from L’Equipe, via Goal.com) as recently as the winter break, “my career will still have been great.”

If that suggests that this most on-edge of performers is close to being sated, though, think again. Leaving PSG at the end of his deal seemed a formality last season when Ibrahimovic was being held back by a series of nagging injuries. Despite the capture of a domestic quadruple, it seemed like an ageing, and a natural winding-down of the player/club relationship.

This campaign has made us think again, and then some. It has been Zlatan at his brutal best. He has already reached the 30-goal mark, all competitions included, including 23 in 21 Ligue 1 starts. He has also chipped in with 10 assists in those league games. He is well on track to at least match his best league total of 30 in 33 starts in 2012/13, his first season in the French capital, and perhaps his total of 41 overall in the following campaign.

After last season’s frustrations, the hunger is palpable. There are more reasons than Ibrahimovic alone for the yawning 23-point gulf PSG have opened up between themselves and second-placed Monaco, but he has had a big influence. The tiger has more left in the tank than many thought.

The recovery of this prime Zlatan, at the age of 34, recalls the recent words of the similarly evergreen Aritz Aduriz, whose 30 goals of his own for Athletic Bilbao this season have sparked a campaign among Spanish football fans to have him included in the national team’s squad for Euro 2016.

Aduriz recently told L’Equipe (print version) that his strong upturn in form during his mid-30s was the natural result of combining a maintained physical condition with ever-growing experience.

That experience, in Ibrahimovic’s case, has come into its own throughout his time in Paris. He has moved away from being the combustible figure of his earlier years, even if Lucas Moura continues to be a little wary of his outbursts of English profanities when somebody mis-controls in a Camp des Loges training session.

There has been something unmistakably statesmanlike about Ibrahimovic’s reign in the capital, leading the club’s president Nasser Al-Khelaifi to think about him as a future sporting director at the club (as reported by Ligue1.com). The consensus on Zlatan as a leader is maybe best illustrated by the fact that Olivier Letang, the club’s joint sporting director and potentially most threatened by the prospect of him moving upstairs, enjoys an excellent and close relationship with the Swede.

Jacques Brinon/Associated Press

What has not changed is Ibrahimovic’s overarching sense of responsibility for the team at the biggest moments. This is arguably Ibrahimovic’s greatest weakness, as well as his strongest attribute. Edinson Cavani might attest to that. Everything has always had to go through Zlatan, and the world around him just has to fit in with that. It is why the PSG fans canvassed by Le Parisien are split on whether he should stay, or whether his single-minded brilliance is holding the "project" back in a sense.

Cavani has perhaps suffered more than most. He has been good while rarely being stellar, important without being vital. The Uruguayan’s wonderful first-leg winner was pertinent not just for being a more than serviceable riposte to having been left out of the XI by Laurent Blanc, but for being a crucial intervention on the biggest stage. Cavani’s positive contributions have been window dressing far too often, and his critical misses in the 2014 loss at Chelsea still stick in the mind.

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The synergy between Ibrahimovic and Cavani has at least improved, slowly but surely. Even if this leopard won’t completely change his spots, Blanc’s growing confidence in managing his magnificent squad has done the seemingly impossible in altering the balance of power in the side.

Angel Di Maria’s arrival filled a clear need, but it has also changed Ibrahimovic’s role as sole attacking conduit. The first meeting with Chelsea at Parc des Princes proved it. Ibrahimovic had his big-game head on, stepping up to give PSG the lead. Later, it was Di Maria’s vision, and stamina, that helped to decide a tight game in their favour.

It’s a seismic change. Ibrahimovic can be his best while the team evolves, and while others—or other, just as special in his own way—can take the lead in decisive moments. Whether that can be reprised at Stamford Bridge, where PSG were without Zlatan for an hour-and-a-half (including extra time) and were just fine without him, will be worth seeing.

If so, PSG will be slight favourites on Wednesday, and the night could further show Ibrahimovic and his club that their fruitful collaboration isn’t done just yet.