Zlatan Ibrahimović was never going to bow out of World Cup punditry quietly, and he didn't. On what turned out to be his last day in the Fox Sports studio, the former Barcelona and Sweden striker said that if he had been on the pitch during Sunday's ugly closing scenes at MetLife Stadium, he would have headbutted Leandro Paredes himself — and taken the red card without complaint.
"Paredes can be happy there was no player like me on the pitch," Ibrahimović said, in comments reported by Sport1 and corroborated by Fox Sports' own account of the broadcast. "If I had been there, I would have headbutted him and been sent off. It is unprofessional behavior from him."
The remark was aimed at the chaos that followed the final whistle of Spain's 1-0 extra-time win over Argentina, sealed by substitute Ferran Torres' 106th-minute goal. Argentina had already been reduced to ten men after Enzo Fernández's dismissal when full time arrived, and Paredes was shown a second red card of the night for Argentina after a physical confrontation involving Spain's Eric García and Gavi.
Ibrahimović didn't stop at Paredes. He turned his fire on Spain's own players for failing to step in, telling viewers: "I don't know what the Spanish players are doing? They are just watching another player hit their teammate." It was a pointed complaint from a player whose own career was built on never backing down from confrontation.
The comments carried extra weight given who was making them. Ibrahimović spent parts of two seasons at Barcelona and remains one of the most recognizable — and combative — figures to have played for the club, giving his verdict on a brawl involving a Barcelona-heavy Spain side an added edge.
He used the same appearance to announce he was stepping away from the punditry role altogether. "This is my last visit to the studio. For me, this was the first and last time," he told his Fox Sports colleagues, thanking Thierry Henry, Alexi Lalas and Rebecca Lowe along with the network and its viewers for the tournament.
The brawl itself has already triggered a formal response from football's governing body: FIFA opened disciplinary proceedings into Argentina's conduct in the aftermath of the final, with Paredes among the players facing scrutiny.
For all his criticism of the post-match scenes, Ibrahimović was unambiguous about the result itself, crediting Spain's defensive discipline and overall football over the course of the match as the difference-maker in a final Argentina managed just a handful of shots in.
Ibrahimović's sign-off adds one more voice — arguably the loudest yet — to a chorus of former players and pundits who have said the ugly aftermath overshadowed what was, for 106 minutes, a tightly contested final between the world's two best teams.
