Player of the season nominees - Zlatan Ibrahimovic

With the season having ended, Sportskeeda decided to let its viewers rate the 30 best players of the season.

We will be shortlisting 30 of the best performers this term, and let you pick your winner.

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When Zlatan Ibrahimovic was a child, he was often shunted between the houses of his divorced parents, often crashing at his father’s place when his mother had people over only to come back a few months later. While that merry-go-round-like movement has now undergone a metamorphosis, which sees him move from club to club every few years, the end results often have a greater measure of happiness than they would as a kid.

As a child, Ibrahimovic’s parents struggled to make ends meet in Sweden. Now in his thirties, his move to Paris Saint-Germain has ensured that his bank balance is far healthier than what it would have been, had he stayed on at Barcelona or AC Milan.

As it is with all new players (even the legendary Zlatan is no exception to this), it took him some time to settle in Paris following his much-publicised move to the French capital, which involved him grinning broadly in front of the Eiffel Tower holding up PSG’s traditional midnight-blue top.

That bedding-in period alongside the rest of PSG’s nouveaux arrivés saw Lyon climb to the summit of the Ligue 1 table, but once the Parisians got into their stride, there were few who could stop them, which meant Ibrahimovic would lift a trophy in his fourth different nation with his seventh different club.

The partnership

You can’t fault football fans throughout the world watching French football in anticipation over what would develop between Ibrahimovic, Ezequiel Lavezzi, Javier Pastore, Marco Verratti and Jeremy Menez. The addition of David Beckham to that mélange in January meant there were more partnership permutations and combinations to keep fans guessing.

They were not to be kept waiting for long. France was treated to the wonders of Ibracadabra as he scored 35 goals in 46 matches and assisted a further nine, which meant he either found the back of the net or helped find it nearly every game.

His contributions in a Parisian shirt were the best returns he’d received. The only other time he scored 35 goals was during his previous season, which was spent in AC Milan. He was (rather obviously) named the League’s Player of the Year at the end of the season, aged all of 31 years.

The complete forward

The presence of Ibrahimovic in a team always guarantees goals and opposition defences found him impossible to handle. Sumptuous goals from set-pieces and the vision, pace and power he possessed meant playing against him was a very unenviable task. The best showreel to encapsulate that would be in his all-action performance which came for his country against England, where he scored all four goals including a dazzlingly spectacular volley for goal number four in a 4-2 win in Stockholm’s brand new Friends Arena.

That sort of performance was delivered week in, week out by the Swede in the colours of PSG.

Few will argue with me when I say that Ibrahimovic is a striker par excellence in the world of football. Fans would have surely loved to see them paired alongside Robin van Persie at Manchester United or Luis Suarez at Liverpool and would have definitely been quaking in some trepidation over the thought of him joining the striking ranks at Manchester City.

But it isn’t just goals which define Ibra’s importance to les Parisiens. He was brought on as a substitute only once during his first season in France and was never taken off the pitch. He started 33 league games and would have surely featured in more had he not received a red card on the fourth of April against St. Etienne.

Play at PSG is centered around Ibrahimovic, as it is at any club featuring him and that is one of the reasons he did not fit in at Barcelona. In the French capital however, as long as he continues to deliver the goods, the club will be happy to make him the centre of attention.

As long as there is the right support around him, Ibra will continue to excel at what he does best: scoring goals.