Ibra needed 500th goal for new book

Zlatan Ibrahimovic said a failure to score his 500th career goal would have spoiled his new book, which went into production during the week he achieved the milestone.

The LA Galaxy striker pulled off a wonderful piece of skill to net his side's first in a 5-3 defeat to reigning MLS champions Toronto last weekend, and he revealed that drawing a blank could have proved embarrassing.

Ibrahimovic has an impressive record since moving to the MLS, having netted 17 goals in 22 league appearances for Galaxy, and is showing no signs of slowing down his prolific scoring rate at the age of 36.

Speaking about the importance of his goal against Toronto, he said: "I'm doing a book with statistics and the main chapter was 500.

"That was the goal and if I hadn't scored that, it would be 499.

"And it went, last Wednesday, into production, so if I didn't score that it would be too late or we risk to [publish] it and then wait for when I do it.

"But what if I got injured? It would not look good!

"My aim was 500 and I'm super happy."