After becoming the recipient of acts of vandalism for weeks, the state of Zlatan Ibrahimovic in Malmö was finally toppled on Sunday night.
The monument, located just outside Malmö FF’s stadium, was broken at the ankles which then caused it to collapse onto a nearby fence. The face of the statue was then covered with a Swedish football t-shirt.
It was discovered at about 3.30am on Sunday morning with "take away" written in Swedish sprayed next to the bronze sculpture.
— B/R Football (@brfootball) January 5, 2020
Hakan Sjostrand, secretary general of the Swedish football association, said following the incident:
“I can understand that there is a disappointment in Malmö, but it crosses all boundaries when you vandalise the statue in the way that has happened, Hakan Sjostrand, secretary general of the Swedish football association, said.
The remains of the monument are being removed but will eventually be re-erected, according to the Guardian. Currently no arrests have been confirmed.
The statue has been the subject of attacks for months, seeing off an attempt to remove the legs of the bronze statue, after it had been attacked with silver spray paint and its nose hacked off to make it look like Voldemort.
Ibrahimovic angered fans of Malmö, the club for which he made his debut in 1999, in November after he purchased a stake in Hammarby, a Swedish rival team, and said he planned to transform the Stockholm team into the best in Scandinavia.
Just hours after Ibrahimovic's deal with the Swedish team was announced, the statue became the target of a series of attacks, including the use of fire and spray paint.
