December 01, (THEWILL) – In early 2020, when Zlatan Ibrahimovic left American football club LA Galaxy, he intended to join Napoli, as the ageless Swede himself recently admitted. However, he ended up returning to AC Milan.
The well-travelled striker had had a successful two-year stint in Major League Soccer (MLS) and had piqued the curiosity of a number of European clubs, especially top Serie A clubs.
He eventually settled for Milan but the Swede has now revealed that he was expecting to join Napoli after being inspired by Diego Maradona to do so.
“Maradona is a myth. Seeing a documentary about him, I decided to go to Napoli, to do like Diego: win the Scudetto,” he confessed. “I was tired of America. I thought I would quit. (Mino) Raiola told me ‘you’re crazy, you have to go back to Italy’.
“It was done with Napoli; but then De Laurentiis kicked out [Carlo] Ancelotti. So I asked Mino, ‘who’s the worst team that I can save?’. He replied ‘yesterday Milan lost 5 to 0 in Bergamo’. Then it’s decided, I said ‘let’s go to Milan. It’s a club I know, a city I like’.”
The Swede was referring to the December 2019 sacking of Ancelotti, which happened the same month Zlatan Ibrahimovic left the LA Galaxy. While the Italian manager joined Everton, Ibrahimovic went to Serie A and joined Milan, a side he is helping to become title contenders once again.
“At the beginning, nobody ran in training,” Ibrahimovic continued. “I faced them one by one, and not on the sidelines but in front of everyone.
“I said ‘in training, you have to kill yourselves with work. If I run, if I kill myself, my team-mates must run and kill themselves for me’. Everyone understood it, except one.
“[Rafael] Leao didn’t pay attention to me at first. He got there on his own. Honestly, he has improved a lot.”
On November 20, Ibrahimovic scored his 400th goal in domestic league play at 40 years and 48 days to become the third oldest player ever to find the net in Serie A. The Swede scored his first goal on October 30, 1999, when 15% of the players with at least one match in Serie A this season were not yet born.
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
