Larsson baffled by Sweden's poor record with Ibra in the side

During Zlatan Ibrahimovic's single season in Spain, rumours about his sexuality grew so much that a TV station sent a curvy brunette reporter to quiz him after training.

"Come over to my place and you'll see if I am gay," he told her with Silvio Berlusconi-style subtlety. "And bring you sister."

Needless to say, the big-nosed Swede didn't score there either.

Yet the affair sums up the the controversial and colourful career of the Milan striker who was labelled by Martin O'Neill as "the most overrated footballer in the world" - yet has won an incredible eight consecutive titles with five different clubs.

In this country, the 6 ft 5 in forward is judged on his poor scoring record against English sides and in the latter stages of the Champions League. The 30-year-old found the net for the first time in the knockout stages only last year before scoring a double against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium.

He is the same odds to score the first goal as Bobby Zamora tomorrow.

But in his native Sweden, he is not just the biggest sports star, he is the star, as big as Bjorn Borg in his day.

The release of his autobiography last week - entitled I Am Zlatan Ibrahimovic - has dominated the front pages as well as the back.

Displaying the same tact he displayed outside the Barcelona training ground, he slags off former team-mates Mido and Freddie Ljungberg as well as Pep Guardiola.

And he labels his former Inter Milan boss Roberto Mancini as "a pretty boy with a handkerchief in his jacket pocket".

Ibrahimovic tells the story of winning the scudetto in his first season at Inter Milan in 2007.

"Inter had not won the title in 17 years," he wrote. "Then I arrived and we won it twice in two years. In the dressing room, everyone was shouting with joy. Then there was silence. Mancini came in. He was not admired in the dressing room after failing in the Champions League and then hesitating about his future with the club. But he had won the title and so the players came forward, one by one, and said: "Many thanks" as if saying "you have pulled us out of this mess." Then Mancini approached me but I gave him no congratulations. Instead, I said to him: "Don't mention it" and everyone exploded with laughter."

Ibrahimovic won Sweden's Golden Ball as the country's best player for the fifth straight year last week. No other player has won the prize more than twice since it started in 1946.

Yet Sweden play better without their most famous player, who is on a run of six goals in the last six games for Milan. He was suspended for the decisive Euro 2012 qualifier against Holland which Sweden won 3-2. In fact, in the last decade, Sweden have a 100 per cent record in Euro qualifiers without him and have won only 55 per cent of games with him. One Swedish journalist joked they "are a one-man team who are better without the one man".

But Sebastian Larsson insisted Ibrahimovic, the highest-paid player in Serie A on £8m a season, is vital to Swedish success at Wembley and at the Euro 2012 finals.

"If you have a player like Zlatan of course he is going to be key," said the Sunderland midfielder. "He's a world superstar, a performer and you just have to look at what he has done in the past.

"If you want to go far you need your best players performing. he is a very important player for us.

"He's also a funny guy, you're always in for a laugh when you are around him. He's a nice guy."

Asked why Sweden play better without him, Larsson replied: "That's the question we are always asked these days. I don't know why.

"We beat Holland without him but hopefully would have beaten Holland with him too. For a country like Sweden to have a player like him there is no question we want him on the pitch whenever possible. If we want to achieve our dreams and goals we need him performing."