<
        >

          Zlatan Ibrahimovic teased by David Beckham, Paul Pogba: '500 goals... that makes you really, really old'

          play
          Zlatan scores 500th goal in epic fashion (0:39)

          Jonathan dos Santos lifts the ball into the box where Zlatan Ibrahimovic spins to hit the ball out of mid-air for his 500th career goal. (0:39)

          • Chris Wright, Toe Poke writerSep 17, 2018, 08:20 AM

          Over the weekend, Zlatan Ibrahimovic attained membership to a rarefied club, joining Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi as the only active players in world football with 500 career goals to their name.

          Ibrahimovic scored in LA Galaxy's 5-3 defeat against Toronto, lashing home a trademark kung-fu roundhouse volley to bring up the milestone.

          Messages of congratulations soon flooded in, with David Beckham chief among them -- the former Galaxy midfielder playfully teasing his ex-Paris Saint-Germain teammate over surpassing 500 goals at such an advanced age.

          "Zlatan, I want to say congratulations," Beckham said in a video message on LA Galaxy's Twitter account.

          "Five-hundred goals. What a career, what a player, what an achievement. Pleasure to play with you and against you. Pleasure to be your friend.

          "Five-hundred goals... that makes you really, really old. But on a serious note, congratulations mate.

          "One thing you need to work on. You're a little bit shy. So, work on it. You'll get better. Congratulations mate. Incredible."

          Ibrahimovic soon responded, saying: "My friend! Thank you very much. I agree with you, I'm old. Will work on my shy side, I definitely need to improve on that."

          Paul Pogba also recorded an Instagram message for Ibrahimovic in which the Manchester United midfielder donned a Galaxy shirt and playfully derided his former colleague for "watching too much Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee."

          The Swedish powerhouse also took the time to thank all of the clubs at which he added to his phenomenal tally over the years -- from Malmo through Ajax, Juventus, Inter Milan, Barcelona, AC Milan, PSG and United to Galaxy and the national team -- courtesy of a rather cool little animated graphic.

          Honestly, we think that the whole shyness issue might not be much of a problem going forward.