As Ajax fans gathered outside the Amsterdam ArenA for the club's opening Champions League match of the season, an exciting 1-1 draw against Paris Saint-Germain, there was something particularly notable about the replica shirts they were sporting.
Despite some amusing stunts to gain publicity for the new kit design, there were fewer fans wearing the 2014-15 kit than the shirt from more than a decade ago. The reason, of course, was the return of PSG's Zlatan Ibrahimovic, a past Ajax great, and therefore "Ibrahimovic 9" was particularly prominent around the stadium.
That No. 9 became extremely important to Ibrahimovic during his spell at Ajax. Ibrahimovic was given the No. 9 shirt by Leo Beenhakker, then Ajax's technical director, and it immediately brought to mind Marco van Basten, one of the strikers he had always most admired.
Later, he would encounter Van Basten around De Toekomst, Ajax's fantastic training facility located close to the stadium.
"I still remember when I first saw him, I was in the locker room, he was doing an internship to become a coach," Ibrahimovic recalled a couple of years ago. "I was completely silent; I did not know what to say."
It takes a lot to shut up Ibrahimovic, but that worked. He and Van Basten became close, with the Dutchman giving the Swede his advice about defending -- telling him not to waste energy tracking back, to save himself for scoring goals. Ibrahimovic later repeated Van Basten's advice to Louis van Gaal (who replaced Beenhakker as technical director) much to Van Gaal's predictable disgust.
Curiously, it was only having left Juventus that Van Basten became the template. "I became a top scorer when I met Fabio Capello," Ibrahimovic once said. "When he was at Juventus one day he showed me a video of Marco van Basten's best goals and said: 'You have to do it like that.' I was young and learned so much from that anthology of football. From that day, I started scoring like the greats." The 30-minute long VHS tape transformed Ibrahimovic into a ruthless striker.
The Van Basten comparisons, however, troubled Ibrahimovic in his early days at Ajax. "All those headlines and comparisons with Van Basten were used against me," Ibrahimovic retells in his autobiography. "They started to see me as a disappointment, a bad buy."
He didn't get along with head coach Co Adriaanse, who publicly declared that Ibrahimovic played too much for himself, rather than for the team. The criticism stung, and it also stuck.
At one point, Ibrahimovic even became afraid that he'd lose that famous jersey. "I also got worried that my shirt, number nine in Ajax, would be taken away from me ... it would be a sign that they didn't have any trust in me. In Ajax they talked a lot about numbers all the time. Number 10 must do this. Number 11 that, and nothing was as great as the number nine, Van Basten's old one."
He didn't lose his No. 9 shirt, and a decade after his departure, it's telling that Ajax fans haven't lost theirs.
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Ibrahimovic's return was quite an event. The Ajax programme ran a feature on his famous "slalom" against NAC, a banner declared "Welcome back, Son of God," and there was an extraordinary roar around the stadium when his name was announced. Also interesting was a similar ovation for the two returning full-backs, Maxwell and Gregory van der Wiel. Maxwell became Ibrahimovic's best friend on his first day in Amsterdam, and later played with him for Inter, Barcelona and now PSG. In their final season together at Ajax, it was Maxwell, not Ibrahimovic, who was named the Eredivisie's player of the season.
Ibrahimovic is different from his Ajax days -- less mobile, more physical -- but he remains desperate to be the star. From the outset, he clearly wanted this to be the Zlatan show, although PSG's opener came from Edinson Cavani, the Uruguayan converting a rebound from Ibrahimovic's blocked shot.
The Swede wanted a goal for himself, berating Brazilian right-winger Lucas Moura after a pass didn't come his way, but realistically Ibrahimovic was equally selfish, the problem with individuality that continues to trouble PSG.
He shot three free kicks, all three drilled low -- the first two straight at Ajax goalkeeper Jasper Cillessen, the third sliced horribly wide. On each occasion, David Luiz trotted forward to suggest he might try one of his incredible dipping, side-footed efforts, the type he perfected in the World Cup quarterfinal against Colombia. Each time, Ibrahimovic, captain for the evening, ignored him.
Ibrahimovic was determined to provide a moment of genius. Towards the end of the first half, he slipped while attempting to reach a deep right-wing cross. Rather than accepting he was toppling over, he threw his legs out, attempting to connect improbably in typically acrobatic Zlatan style. In reality, his legs were miles from the ball, there was never a chance of him reaching the cross. It's that commitment to entertain, however, that makes him so popular.
"It was amazing, fantastic [being back]," Ibrahimovic said afterwards. "It's the third time I have come back here, and I've always felt welcome. It was here that everything started. The ArenA is amazing and I always enjoyed playing here, so it was a happy moment."
All three of his returns, incidentally, have finished 1-1, with Ibrahimovic leaving somewhat disappointed.
There were some moments of brilliance, however. He played two superb through balls midway through each half -- one for Cavani with the outside of his boot, the other for Lucas over a longer distance -- having dropped into deeper positions. That shows Ibrahimovic's all-around game these days; particularly in Europe, he is given freedom to drop deep and dictate play, and it wasn't uncommon to see him deep into the midfield zone.
His best touch, however, came with 25 minutes remaining, when he controlled a 70-yard Salvatore Sirigu goal kick with a back-heeled, volleyed cushioned pass to a teammate. It was a remarkable piece of skill, and like all his best contributions in this game, came when he attempted to link with another attacker, rather than attempting to go for goal himself.
That Adriaanse criticism, from Ibrahimovic's first months at Ajax, remains pertinent. Ibrahimovic can be a magician with his clever touches, and his finishing has become Van Basten-esque -- but his best performances come when he plays for the team, not for himself.