beIN SPORTS

By Jonathan Johnson (@Jon_LeGossip)

Paris Saint-Germain’s 4-0 home win over FC Nantes last Saturday brought the curtain down on the capital club’s most dominant Ligue 1 season to date. It also signalled the end of Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s time at Parc des Princes.

Since arriving in Paris back in the summer of 2012, the Sweden international has swept all before him domestically. The 34-year-old has scored copious amounts of goals across all competitions for Les Parisiens and broken almost every record there is to break in French football. Now, after four terms of the highest quality in Le Championnat, Ibrahimovic will take his leave. To sign off in an emotional final match at Parc des Princes, the PSG No. 10 scored twice in the win over Nantes to set a new single campaign club record of 38 goals.

Saturday’s Coupe de France final against bitter rivals Olympique de Marseille was a fitting last game as a player with the French champions. Then, the country has at least three more matches with Sweden to enjoy before finally bidding farewell to a great champion. 

For PSG, life after Ibrahimovic has already begun. Coach Laurent Blanc admitted in his pre-Nantes press conference that “next season starts today” and the six-time Ligue 1 champions now must identify and acquire a replacement for the man who has been irreplaceable since he arrived.

It will not be a simple task. How do you replace the player who has netted 154 goals in 179 games across all competitions?

Not only does Zlatan’s successor have to be prolific in front of goal, he must be as much of a draw off the pitch as he is on it, as well as being able to carry the team on his back at times when needed. Bearing that in mind, it is tempting to say that because there are so few players out there capable of combining all of those things, that it will require more than one figure to effectively replace the talismanic Swede in Paris.

Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo is arguably the only player who might be capable of ticking all of those boxes and is within PSG’s reach but even if Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) can afford the Portuguese superstar, there is no guarantee he will leave (or be allowed to depart) Santiago Bernabeu this summer.

Ideally, the kings of Le Championnat will pick someone less dominant than Ibrahimovic was. Doing so would allow the collective to shine rather than a lavishly assembled ensemble of talented players working for the towering striker. For PSG, with no obvious replacement looking obtainable, it is a risky move letting go of a player who by all accounts was open to staying on for at least another season. For Zlatan, though, he could not have picked a better time to leave.

Aside from perhaps leading the French capital outfit to the UEFA Champions League semi-finals or better, there is nowhere else that Ibrahimovic can take them. The former AC Milan, Barcelona, Inter Milan, Juventus, AFC Ajax and Malmo FF man has broken pretty much every record he could possibly get his hands on and he even came close to challenging the all-time landmark of 44 Ligue 1 goals scored by Josip Skoblar back in 1970-71.

Had Zlatan not missed the first few games of this season through injury, the chances are that we would probably be talking about a new record tally right now. Ibrahimovic has taken PSG as far as he can and the team have gone as far as they can under his leadership. The only way two could have gone together from here is arguably downwards. 

In order for Les Parisiens to now make progress in the Champions League and remain this dominant domestically, they must step out of his shadow and illustrate that they are no longer “Zlatan’s team.”The giant Swede will have no shortage of takers, with Manchester United and Los Angeles Galaxy reportedly very keen on him already. 

However, it is highly unlikely that he will top his final season in Paris wherever he goes and in that respect, perhaps it is the best thing for all parties that he is bowing out now on an absolute high.