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Soccer fans new and old have been finding something to enjoy about Zlatan as a studio analyst
If you were an avid soccer fan before the start of the World Cup, you already had knowledge of and a stance on former Sweden striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic. And if you’re a new soccer fan tuning into the 2026 World Cup, it probably didn’t take you long to form an opinion on him.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic, alongside Thierry Henry and Alexi Lalas (more on him later), have been Fox’s three main studio analysts for the 2026 World Cup alongside host Rebecca Lowe, who also popularly anchors NBC’s Premier League coverage.
To the new viewer, both Henry and Ibrahimovic have been revelations in the studio, with the former getting praised for his knowledge, communication skills (in his second language, no less), and elegance, and the latter being lauded for, well, *being Zlatan*, resulting in the pair being compared by to the crew on Inside the NBA. Zlatan’s combination of experience at the highest level and the confidence to speak his mind based on those lived lessons creates a mixture of authority and charisma that makes him instantly appealable to American sports fans.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic has largely been a hit as a studio analyst among both old and new American soccer fans
And that’s what made him one of the biggest winner of the World Cup so far. America doesn’t have many well-known soccer personalities, but Zlatan — with his famed ultra-confidence that the World Cup has underlined with genuine emotional intelligence and empathy — and his built-in character are primed to make him a star stateside.
The positioning and operations behind Zlatan’s insertion into the US media stratosphere has been terrific, and thrilling to observe.
His team and Fox’s have played a blinder, and I suspect there’s a story to be written about how they managed to uphold and diffuse (the perception… https://t.co/2g8Hdz77rQ
— Joel A. Adejola (@joeladejola) July 5, 2026
I’m gonna miss Zlatan. He should do the news or something.
“Some people died. Some people refused to. It might rain tomorrow. Be smarter or faster than water.”
— myles brown (@mdotbrown) July 6, 2026
Whereas Lalas takes on the embodiment of American bravado, Zlatan does the same but in the larger context of not just being a footballer, but ultimately, being an alpha male — a divisive phenomenon over the last decade or so due the rise of the “manosphere,” an online self-improvement industry focused on maximizing one’s physical attractiveness.
The biggest difference between Zlatan and Lalas, and why Zlatan may ultimately be able to do what Lalas has done on the air for two decades but to a more popular degree, is that Ibrahimovic has the resume to back the confidence and occasional arrogance up.
At the start of the World Cup, American sports fans began diving down the rabbit hole that is his YouTube highlights and immediately understood why he talks with the self-assurance that he does.
Even his biggest haters will admit that, while his career team accomplishments may be lacking and his personality ultimately divisive, his raw talent and unerring production made him one of the most dominant strikers of his era. He scored over 400 career club goals playing for iconic European clubs such as Ajax, Juventus, Inter Milan, Barcelona, AC Milan, Paris Saint-Germain, and Manchester United.
But balancing out that blustery persona has been an unexpected depth of emotion, with his teary-eyed response to Bosnia and Herzegovina, reaction to Cabo Verde’s epic performance against Argentina and his message to young Australian centerback Lucas Herrington, who missed his penalty in Australia’s Round of 32 loss to Egypt. It’s those moments that keep Ibrahimovic from wading into full caricature and remaining a fully three-dimensional person.
one of my favorite subplots of the World Cup has been Zlatan letting his arrogance shtick slip and showing incredible emotional intelligence and empathy https://t.co/TMAA8Dxuti
— Eric Italiano (@ericitaIiano) July 4, 2026
And then there’s the whole Lalas dynamic, with many American soccer fans claiming he’s done in less than a month what the general audience has been trying to accomplish for over a decade — bully Lalas off the air.
“Zlatan was creating an uncomfortable working environment for alexi lalas and fox covered it up an jus moved him outta there,” one viral tweet with over 2.7 million views joked.
Zlatan finally bodied him pic.twitter.com/DNOeFZHb9W https://t.co/o5HG9j89zX
— Brendan Darr (@BrendanDarr) June 16, 2026
Zlatan also has the sort of crossover appeal, image and defined brand that could see him become a crossover star in Hollywood, such as Boban Marjanović, the 7’4″ former NBA player who has appeared in films such as John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, Hustle, Self Reliance, and Happy Gilmore 2, in addition to credits in Serbian productions. Beyond Boban, this feat has been accomplished by the likes of Carl Weathers, Jim Brown, Fred Williamson, Vinnie Jones, OJ Simpson, Shaq, The Rock, John Cena, Dave Bautista, and others.
Drake once rapped on ‘Tuscan Leather,” “Bench players talking like starters I hate it” — Zlatan is the thematic inverse of that quote. And that’s the type of personality that Americans have been proven to be drawn to, which could make him a star in the United States if he were to pursue it.