{"id":496266,"date":"2025-10-14T07:50:50","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T11:50:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/?post_type=news&#038;p=496266"},"modified":"2025-10-14T07:50:50","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T11:50:50","slug":"zlatan-ibrahimovic-names-his-three-greatest-players-of-all-time-but-snubs-cristiano-ronaldo","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/news\/zlatan-ibrahimovic-names-his-three-greatest-players-of-all-time-but-snubs-cristiano-ronaldo\/","title":{"rendered":"Zlatan Ibrahimovic names his three greatest players of all time, but snubs Cristiano Ronaldo"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Zlatan Ibrahimovic has never been afraid to stir debate, and his latest comments have done just that. When asked to name the three greatest footballers of all time, the 44-year-old Swede left out Cristiano Ronaldo \u2014 opting instead for a mix of legends who shaped the game in their own eras.<\/p>\n<p>In an interview captured by 443, Ibrahimovic placed Lionel Messi third on his list. \u201cFor the third position, I\u2019m going to say Messi,\u201d he said. \u201cHe\u2019s won\u2026 not sure if there\u2019s anything left for him to win.\u201d Having played alongside the Argentine at Barcelona during the 2009\u201310 season, Zlatan has long praised Messi\u2019s extraordinary talent. \u201cIt\u2019s like playing PlayStation,\u201d he once said. \u201cYou give the ball to the guy and he goes through every player.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In second place, Ibrahimovic chose Diego Maradona \u2014 a player he described as \u201ca real one\u201d who \u201cdid everything with his heart, with his emotions.\u201d Growing up in the 1980s, Maradona\u2019s fiery spirit and flair clearly left a lasting mark on the young Swede.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">\u2022 Could you give us your top 3 of all time?<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udea8\ud83d\udde3\ufe0f \ud835\udde1\ud835\uddd8\ud835\uddea: Zlatan: \u201cRonaldo (R9), Maradona and Messi.\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/HqhE8X449C\" target=\"_blank\">pic.twitter.com\/HqhE8X449C<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 The Touchline | \ud835\udc13 (@TouchlineX) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TouchlineX\/status\/1977638163595321837?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">October 13, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>But at the top of Zlatan\u2019s list sits Ronaldo Nazario, the Brazilian phenomenon. \u201cIn my opinion, Ronaldo, the phenomenon, the Brazilian, he was football,\u201d he declared. \u201cThe way he moved, the way he did those stepovers, those mazy runs \u2014 he is the best player in history, no doubt about it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Zlatan Ibrahimovic has never been afraid to stir debate, and his latest comments have done just that. When asked to name the three [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":137,"featured_media":496303,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false},"tags":[16904,17909,26895,19713],"news_category":[14235],"gn_keywords":[17961,17910,19714,512],"acf":{"news_source":"","link_picture":"","announce":"Swedish legend once again said his football hero is Ronaldo Nazario","video":[]},"rank_math_focus_keyword":"","rank_math_description":"","rank_math_title":"","rank_math_robots":"","rank_math_canonical_url":"","rank_math_facebook_title":"","rank_math_facebook_description":"","rank_math_facebook_image":"","rank_math_twitter_title":"","rank_math_twitter_description":"","rank_math_twitter_image":"","rank_math_snippet_shortcode":"","rank_math_primary_category":"","rankmath_seo":{"focus_keyword":"","description":"","title":"","canonical_url":"","robots":"","facebook":{"title":"","description":"","image":""},"twitter":{"title":"","description":"","image":""}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/496266"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/137"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=496266"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/496266\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":496304,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/496266\/revisions\/496304"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/496303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=496266"},{"taxonomy":"news_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news_category?post=496266"},{"taxonomy":"gn_keywords","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/gn_keywords?post=496266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}