Angry Swedish fans have auctioned off the severed nose of a statue of veteran national team striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, protesting “the transformation of soccer into a business” and what they see as a betrayal by the AC Milan star.
The auction on eBay on Tuesday brought in $610.
The life-size bronze statue of the Swedish star, erected in his hometown of Malmö in 2019, has been the target of numerous attacks since the player invested in Stockholm-based Hammarby in November 2019, provoking the anger of fans of Malmö, the club where he started. his soccer career.
The statue’s nose was ripped off in December 2019, before its feet were amputated in January 2020, causing it to fall onto the fence that protects it.
Malmö fans reportedly auctioned off three replicas of the statue’s nose, which is still missing, “because choosing money over love can cost you.”
“Football was originally a mass movement, but it has increasingly turned into an overly commercialized mass industry, where fans are seen as consumers,” they wrote on the specially designed site for Vararnasan, which means “where’s the nose” in Swedish. clubs are treated as commodities.”
They said they intend to use the proceeds from the auction to fight against “modern, commercial soccer and to promote a sport in which the focus is on the love of clubs and the game.”
The artist who made the bronze statue, Peter Linde, was not at all pleased with the auction, telling the newspaper “Sedsvenskan” that “the nose sellers complain that soccer has turned the game into a big business, but they themselves make money from crime.”
