Ibrahimovic Eyes All-Time Leading Scorer Record for PSG
Zlatan Ibrahimovic finally opened his Ligue 1 scoring account for the season Tuesday, finding the net in Paris Saint-Germain’s 3-0 win over Guingamp.
It was the 83rd minute of play when the Swede ran onto a through ball from Angel Di Maria to slot home PSG’s third of the night, following goals from Javier Pastore and Di Maria himself. The goal took Zlatan’s tally to 107 goals for the capital club that he joined in 2012.
He might have made it 108 minutes later had he not missed a penalty.
Still, Ibrahimovic is now just two goals shy of the record held by PSG’s all-time leading scorer, Pauleta, the Portuguese striker who notched 109 goals in five seasons at PSG between 2003 and 2008.
While Ibrahimovic is now almost certain to surpass Pauleta’s record, the former AC Milan striker has been uncharacteristically quiet on the goal-scoring front this season. The goal against Guingamp was his first in over 500 minutes.
Nonetheless, now that he has broken his scoring duck for the season, it seems less a question of if Zlatan will break Pauleta’s record than when.
“Perhaps as early as this weekend or next week,” said Pauleta himself, speaking to L’Equipe. “All records are made to be broken, it had to happen one day.”
But then for Pauleta, having his scoring record broken is nothing really new.
“I also experienced it with the national team,” Pauleta told Le Parisien. “Last year Cristiano Ronaldo replaced me as the top scorer in Portugal’s history. And when players like CR7 or Ibra take your record, you can live pretty well with it.”
Indeed.
Ibrahimovic will have his next chance to usurp Pauleta when league-leaders PSG travel to the Stade de la Beaujoire to face bottom-dwellers Nantes.
Watch Paris St. Germain vs. Nantes at 6pm ET Saturday on BeINSports.