Between 2007 and 2016, the Swedish Football of the Year awards ceremony was a one-man show. For ten consecutive years, Zlatan Ibrahimovic took home the trophy, and nobody could contest that he deserved it.
Yet it was uncharacteristic of Swedish football for one man to have such dominance over the accolade. No other footballer had ever won the award more than twice. Not Tomas Brolin, not Henrik Larsson, not Freddie Ljungberg.
Zlatan was cut from a different cloth, and it would be difficult to claim that his effect on Sweden's national team was anything but positive. Yet between his debut in 2001 and his retirement in 2016, Sweden never won a knockout match at a major tournament.