Zlatan Ibrahimovic had a stellar football career. He spent his younger years at Malmö FF in his native Sweden, from where he moved on to Ajax, Juve, and Inter Milan.
During these years, his talent started to really shine, and he gathered a lot of experience – this was reflected by the increasing transfer fees the teams paid to have him. Ajax paid around £7.8 million for him, Inter Milan paid almost three times as much, and by the time he reached Barcelona, the Spanis team paid £59 million for the Swedish player, plus striker Samuel Eto’o. Over his long and fruitful career, Zlatan played for a series of high-profile European clubs, but after a goalless season at Manchester United that ended with the termination of his contract, he left Europe, seemingly for good. He re-emerged at the Major League Soccer club LA Galaxy. What happened to Zlatan, you might ask? Well, at the age of 37, he is considered being beyond his prime. He is still a talented player and has considerable star power… but we can expect him, just like others before him, to retire after a few years of soccer.
Zlatan is by no means the first player to end his career at a Major League Soccer team.
Former Liverpool star Steven Gerrard played almost his entire professional career with The Mighty Reds. The former captain of the England national team, considered by Zidane and Pelé perhaps the best footballer in the world, the versatile player with an innate talent for leading, the 2005 UEFA Club Footballer of the Year, the only footballer to score in an FA Cup Final, a League Cup Final, a UEFA Cup Final and a UEFA Champions League Final, winning at all occasions, has last played for Liverpool in a 1-3 loss against Crystal Palace in 2014. In 2015, he joined the MLS side LA Galaxy in a contract reportedly worth $9 million. After just 13 appearances in the regular season, Gerrard decided to retire, playing his final match for the Galaxy on November 6, 2016.
Ashley Cole was England’s most capped full back – he played with the National Team from 2001 to 2014, in three World Cups and two European Championships, he was voted England Player of the Year in 2010, and was an integral member of Arsenal’s “The Invincibles” team of the 2003–04 season, who went the entire league season undefeated. In 2014, he left England for a brief stint with AS Roma, moving to MLS side LA Galaxy in 2016. He played two seasons with the team, being released at the end of the 2018 season, from the position of captain. He then joined Derby County, reuniting with former Chelsea teammate Frank Lampard but he indicated that he will most likely retire at the end of the season, at the age of 37.
The trend was started by (or with) David Beckham in 2007 and it continues to this day.