Footballer Zlatan Ibrahimovic has filed a lawusit for slander against the former coach of Sweden’s athletics team for controversial remarks suggesting the striker used doping to pack more muscles, court records showed yesterday.
Ulf Karlsson’s statements last week that the player had used doping during his stint at Italian side Juventus were labelled as “gross” slander, Ibrahimovic’s attorneys said.
They cited “the nature of the remarks and how they had been disseminated,” the document seen by dpa said.
Karlsson had not presented any proof, the attorneys added, noting that the former coach also had not retracted his statements, making Ibrahimovic appear criminal or blameworthy.  
Ibrahimovic also risked “considerable economic harm, for instance losing income from current or future sponsors.”
Ibrahimovic, captain of the Sweden team and Paris Saint-Germain, has never tested positive for doping.
The 72-page document included copies and references to scores of articles that the case has generated - in Sweden and abroad.
The footballer’s attorneys requested that Karlsson, if convicted, should be ordered to pay the trial costs but the player was not seeking damages.
Karlsson on Friday apologized for remarks made during a recent debate on doping in sports where he linked the footballer’s muscle and weight build-up during a six-month period while at Juventus (2004-06) to doping.
Court officials said no date has been set for the hearing. Testimony was expected from Ibrahimovic as well as a reporter at the local newspaper NWT who wrote the original story where Karlsson reiterated that he stood by his controversial remarks.