Zlatan Ibrahimovic has insisted that his history with Swedish side Malmo cannot be erased - despite the statue of him being torn down by fans.

The 500-kilogram statue of Ibrahimovic - unveiled to such fanfare outside the stadium of Malmo's football team in October 2019 - was sawn off leaving just a foot.

For Malmo's diehard fans, Ibrahimovic is a persona non grata in the place where he was born to immigrant parents from the former Yugoslavia, grew up in a tough housing project where there were rival criminal gangs, and joined the city's leading football team as a lanky 14-year-old in 1996 before leaving in 2001 and going on to enjoy a stellar career.

His decision to buy a stake in one of his boyhood club's biggest title rivals in the Swedish top division, Stockholm-based Hammarby left Malmo supporters stunned.

Then outright angry when the former Sweden striker outlined his desire to make Hammarby the "best in Scandinavia" and predicted the people of Malmo would be happy for him.

The AC Milan striker has been training with Hammarby amid the coronavirus pandemic, with the situation particularly bad in Italy and will return to Milan once the Serie A season is back up and running.