Zlatan Ibrahimović Offers Support to Smilla Holmberg After Penalty Miss Ends Sweden's Euro 2025 Hopes

Zlatan Ibrahimović has offered heartfelt support to teenage defender Smilla Holmberg after her decisive penalty miss brought Sweden’s Euro 2025 campaign to an end in the quarter-finals following a dramatic shootout defeat to England.

Sweden were eliminated 3–2 on penalties after an extraordinary shootout involving 14 players. The 18-year-old Holmberg sent her spot-kick high over the crossbar, sparking emotional scenes as she tearfully returned to her devastated teammates.

Among those who reached out was Sweden’s all-time men’s top scorer, Ibrahimović, who sought to comfort the young Hammarby defender with a personal message.

“It was a sad daughter I held in my arms about an hour after the game,” Holmberg’s father, Ola Persson, told Swedish radio on Friday.

“She is strong and she has received a lot of support from the team, supporters, friends and family. She even got a text message from Zlatan this morning.”

Ibrahimović, 43, is a part-owner of Hammarby — Holmberg’s Stockholm-based club — and sent an encouraging message, urging her to keep believing in herself and to be ready to take the next penalty, and the next.

“The most important thing is that no one defines a career by those misses; in fact, it’s the opposite — you grow in those situations,” Persson added.