Boonen tells funny story about Zlatan Ibrahimovic at a beach bar: "I’m Tom, and I’m a singer-songwriter"

Anyone familiar with the Belgian podcast knows that the talk show, with regular guests Ruben Van Gucht, Tom Boonen, Jan Bakelants, and Dirk De Wolf, has developed a habit of sharing remarkable stories. What's the goal? Ultimately, the audience votes on whether they think it's factual or fictional.

Enter Boonen, who comes up with a very bizarre story. “Last summer, I was having lunch at a beach bar in Ibiza with my good friend Matz Sels, among others.” Sels is a Belgian goalkeeper who made the switch to the English Premier League in January 2024 and is now playing brilliantly there.

“Some famous soccer players were sitting at a table near us: Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Marco Verratti, and Marco Borriello,” Boonen continues. Even for non-soccer fans, the name Ibrahimovic will ring a bell. The Swede played for clubs such as FC Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain, Ajax, Juventus, Internazionale, and AC Milan: one of the most iconic soccer players of the last generation.

Okay, so the Belgian ex-cyclist saw those soccer players, including Marco Verratti, another prominent soccer player, sitting in the beach bar. “Those men were left pretty much alone, while I occasionally had my picture taken with Belgians. You could see those soccer players looking at me: Who is that?” Boonen recalls from last summer.

"A little later, I went swimming in the sea, and when I came out of the sea, I ran into those soccer players. Hey, who are you? Ibrahimovic asked me. To which I replied: I'm Tom and I'm a singer-songwriter from Belgium," Boonen joked with none other than Zlatan in front of him.

“He asked if I had any well-known songs. ‘Do you know 'Als een leeuw in een kooi’ (Like a lion in a cage),' I asked him, to which he replied no,” Boonen pretended to be Willy Sommers. “And who are you?” ‘I'm Zlatan!’ I replied, ‘Good for you,’ and walked away," Boonen laughs. The question remains, of course: is it a true story? Not long after, Boonen confirms that it happened indeed.