Ibrahimovic Against England, Best Goal Ever?

As Swedish talisman Zlatan Ibrahimovic, scored his fourth goal of the night and wrapped up the win for his side, the crowd in the new, Friends Arena, gasped in awe of what they had just seen.


England manager Roy Hodgson called it a: "Work of art", Captain Steven Gerrard said: "It is the best goal I have ever seen live." In the dying moments of Wednesday night's friendly,  keeper Joe Hart ventured out of his goal attempting to clear English lines but all he could do was head the ball straight up into the air giving Ibrahimovic the opportunity to do this. The finish was spectacular, electrifying, superb, but was it really the best ever?.


Football's been around a long time and in that period we have seen many great goals and the Swedish striker's is among them. However there have been better and more significant goals scored, remember this was only an International friendly which in themselves are much ridiculed by Premier League managers due to the fact that only pride is at stake.


In terms of brilliance and importance two automatically come to mind, Diego Maradona's, 'Goal of the Century'  and Zinedine Zidane's, wondrous volley against Bayer Leverkusen. To put both goals into perspective, Maradona's effort for Argentina was in a World Cup quarter final against England and was a massive goal not only for footballing reasons, but also political (The Falklands war). After his hugely controversial 'Hand of God' goal, there was no arguing his second as he danced through the English defence. Former England striker Gary Lineker (who was on the pitch at the time), described the second strike as: "Probably the one and only time in my whole career, that I felt like applauding the opposition scoring a goal", that says it all really. Zidane's strike was in the 2002 Champions League final, the score was one all at the time and the next goal was going to be crucial. On the stroke of halftime, Zidane hit that fabulous volley and his Madrid side never looked back winning the final 2-1.


People will have differing opinions on the goal but in a few years time, how many of them will remember the effort?. Purely on the basis of importance, Ibrahimovic's goal cannot be classed as the greatest, it's up there in terms of quality but that's not enough as the greatest goals define legacies.

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