American soccer fans finally have a good reason to hate Zlatan Ibrahimovic — or at least briefly dislike the world superstar for the brilliant soccer player that he is.
No, his arrogance and pretentious ego have not been sufficient excuses to dislike Zlatan, unless that is you're still salty about that reported AC Milan mano-a-mano with US defender Oguchi Onyewu.
Verbally attacking the honor of Sacha Kljestan's mustache, though? Say it ain't so, Big Zlat.
But according to Kljestan, that's exaclty what happened on Tuesday when the US national team midfielder's Belgian club team Anderlecht faced Ibrahimovic's Paris Saint-Germain in UEFA Champions League group-stage play.
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"After a perfectly normal challenge, Ibra turned to me and provoked me, making a joke about my mustache, saying, 'That really is terrible,'" Kljestan told Belgian newspaper Sportwereld after the match. "I responded by saying that he should think about his nose."
That's the ol' American fighting spirit, Sacha!
Kljestan's teammate Luka Milivojevic added later that Ibrahimovic had tried to catch him in an off-the-ball incident earlier in the game: "He tried to get me when the ball was long gone. Clearly he was not happy to have missed the ball."
Imagine how appalled Ibrahimovic must have been when someone had the audacity to fire back in such a manner at the Eighth Wonder of the World. Kljestan is not backing down on Twitter from his stance, either.
Whatever happens between now and next summer's World Cup in Brazil, Sacha just booked his place in my 23-man roster.
