The present article analyses the mediatization of the brand and celebrity Zlatan Ibrahimovićusing the reception and marketing of the footballer’s life story and autobiography as itsmain case. It is shown that the construction of a myth such as Ibrahimović transcends themateriality of the book as well as geographical, vernacular and media boundaries, as it isconstituted as content in a digital network that produces signification. This ‘Zlatan content’is framed by national Swedish values and a traditional Western myth of individual masculineexcellence. It is also marked by emotions, class and race, telling a tale about the marginalizedemotive immigrant becoming both a national icon and part of an imaginary Westernghetto experience and global literary canon formation. It is argued that the performance ofexcitable speech acts is crucial in the mediatization and branding of mass market literatureand celebrities such as Ibrahimović.