From the picture of this young man, you would never guess he would go on to win 116 international caps and lift the league championship trophy in four different countries.
But the historical great set tongues wagging on social media with a throwback picture to his much younger days on Friday.
The image is simply captioned 'Balkan roots' and was sent from his popular Instagram account, which has 45.3million followers.
His Instagram post is currently liked by almost 1.1million people, and among more than 5,000 commenters was Barcelona midfielder Miralem Pjanic, who was born in then-Yugoslavia and represents Bosnia and Herzegovina at international level.
The man in question is Zlatan Ibrahimovic, now 39, currently in his second spell at Italian giants AC Milan.
After signing for Stefano Pioli's side on a free transfer in December 2019, he agreed a contract extension for a further year in August after continuing his superb scoring record.
Following 11 goals in 20 games for the Rossoneri last campaign, he has nine goals in nine appearances this season, including a double against city rivals Inter Milan in October.
Sportsmail reported this week on Ibrahimovic's apparently cryptic Twitter post which declared: 'Long time no see' with a photo of him in a Sweden shirt.
However, the Swede admitted a national team return was not in the offing and he was just 'trying to irritate certain people in Sweden'.
Despite his retirement from international duty in 2016, he stated his desire to represent his country again at the 2018 World Cup, but manager Janne Andersson left him out; Ibrahimovic later slammed the Swedish media for his absence at the tournament.
The gifted striker won league titles in the Eredivisie with Ajax, Serie A with Inter Milan (and AC Milan in a previous spell), LaLiga with Barcelona, and Ligue 1 with Paris Saint-Germain.
He also won the FIFA Puskas Award in 2013, given for the most aesthetically pleasing goal that calendar year, for his astonishing long-range overhead kick against England in a 4-2 victory.