Hamren: Sweden will never find another Ibrahimovic

Erik Hamren has taken the time to praise Zlatan Ibrahimovic and has stressed Sweden will never find another player like the iconic attacker.

Ibrahimovic announced on Tuesday he would retire from international duty after Euro 2016, with Wednesday’s 1-0 defeat at the hands of Belgium ending his Sweden career, and Hamren believes they will struggle to ever replace him.

“It will be impossible to find another Zlatan. He is special, he is unique,” the outgoing Sweden coach said at a news conference.

“We will not find another player like him in Sweden, because he is unique.

“We wanted a better end for Zlatan.”

Sweden prematurely crashed out of Euro 2016 following a draw and two defeats in Group E, but Hamren was nonetheless proud of his side’s performance in Nice on Wednesday.

“I am obviously very disappointed with the result,” he added.

“I was talking about how the players should be honoured to be here and to be playing for Sweden. I can only be proud of them. We got some chances to score. Our last two games were all right, but we were unable to convert our chances. But we tried right until the very end.

“We were not very good against Ireland, but we have since progressed. Maybe we could have done more against Italy going forward, but they have a great defence.  

“We put in a good performance, we did everything we could.”