Zlatan Ibrahimovic fears nothing, except maybe helicopters.
Part of FOX Sports’ coverage of the 2026 World Cup alongside Rebecca Lowe, Thierry Henry and Alexi Lalas, Ibrahimovic has been a breath of fresh air on the panel.
From his brutally honest takes on the football he has observed to an on-set rivalry – albeit in jest – with Lalas in particular, the Swede has brought his personality and flair that he showed for over two decades on the pitch into his studio role.
But as the FOX team travelled to MetLife Stadium for the World Cup final between Spain and Argentina, via helicopter, 44-year-old Ibrahimovic showed that he is human after all.
During the live pre-game broadcast from the sky, Lowe asked Ibrahimovic what his thoughts were about being in the air, and for a moment, he seemed to forget he was on live television.
“The adrenaline is pumping on the way, I’m s******* in my pants,” he said, wiping some sweat off of his brow.
“I don’t like helicopters but it’s okay, I have Rebecca close to me, I have Thierry, I have Alexi.
“If we go down, we go down together. Let’s go.”
While his fear was evident, he said it all with a huge smile on his face and dressed to the nines in a cream suit for the special occasion.
Nothing in on-set rivalry with Lalas
In an exclusive conversation with talkSPORT earlier this month, Lowe opened up on the alleged tension between Ibrahimovic and Lalas, stating that there is absolutely nothing to it.
“There is nothing, there is no tension, nothing. We are laughing our heads off at all of this,’ she said.
“Everybody respects everybody hugely. If people want to watch and listen to what the guys say to each other and work off each other, they would see that.
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“But we don’t live in that world, do we? We live in the clickable world, the, ‘Oh, that might mean something, so let’s clip it up and put it everywhere,’ and then everyone piles in. …
“It’s a strange old narrative when you’re in the middle of the thunderstorm, and I am right in the middle of it with them all day every day, and it just doesn’t exist.”
If anything, Lowe has had her work cut out for her having to handle the huge personalities of Zlatan, Henry and Lalas.
“I do feel sometimes like I’m herding cattle,” Lowe added. “They are absolutely brilliant in every way. Honestly, we have so much fun.
“It’s probably the most unpredictable show, or panel, that I’ve ever had across my entire 25-year career, but sometimes I think in life you need that. You need to be kept on your toes, and boy, do they keep me on my toes.”
“I love them to pieces. We connected, all of us, as a four. We really bonded straight away.
But it is a group that have kept drawing in the fans, with viewership numbers having justified their $485 million gamble to acquire the English-language broadcasting rights.
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