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ROME: When Zlatan Ibrahimovic walked into a Serie A locker room for the first time at age 22 and saw the likes of Alessandro Del Piero, David Trezeguet and Gianluigi Buffon staring at him, he acknowledges that it felt like a “fantasy world.”
The retired Sweden superstar, now an adviser at AC Milan after also playing for the Rossoneri over two different spells as well as city rival Inter Milan, credited the Italian league with shaping him into one of the world’s top strikers during an entertaining on-stage discussion at this week’s European Football Clubs assembly.
“When I came to Italy, it was the biggest competition in the world, and all the big players were playing there. I was young. I didn’t have a lot of respect, to be honest, because I wanted to prove myself,” Ibrahimovic said.
“But the first time I came to Juventus was a little bit fantasy world for me because I came from Ajax. I came in a locker room to Juventus where I saw (Lilian) Thuram, Buffon, (Fabio) Cannavaro, Del Piero, Trezeguet. All these big stars and I was like one week before I used to play PlayStation with these guys. One week later I was with them in the locker room.”
‘I became an animal’
Ibrahimovic first encountered Fabio Capello, who had been named Juventus coach before his transfer in 2004, at the Bianconeri breakfast table.
Capello was reading the Gazzetta dello Sport, Ibrahimovic recalled.
“I was like, ‘Good morning, mister.’ He didn’t react, and I said (to myself), ‘Oh. I said the wrong word now.’ But I let it go. I waited five, 10 minutes. He just put the paper down and walked out. I was just like, ‘Wow. This is on a different level.’”
Ibrahimovic, who went on to score 16 Serie A goals that season, eventually earned Capello’s attention.
“I asked him, ‘How do you gain respect’ from a group that he had? Because he had a team that was world-class players and everybody was like, ‘I’m the best in the world.’ And they were the best of the world,” Ibrahimovic said. “He said, ‘I don’t ask for respect. I take the respect.’ That’s what he did with me in the breakfast by not talking to me.
“He was demanding. His discipline was very high. So, he raised me, and he put me down on the ground. So, one day I could be the best in the world, the next day I could be the worst player in the world. That was him triggering me and playing with my mind to bring the best out of me,” Ibrahimovic added. “He shaped my mentality. From a normal human being, I became an animal.”
Ibrahimovic went on to win Serie A five times — three trophies with Inter and two with Milan. Two Italian league titles at Juventus under Capello were stripped due to the Calciopoli scandal.
Mourinho, Guardiola and Ancelotti
Ibrahimovic also played under Jose Mourinho at Inter and Manchester United, Pep Guardiola at Barcelona and Carlo Ancelotti at Paris Saint-Germain.
“They made a change in football. They changed the game in their own way,” Ibrahimovic said. “Because I changed a lot of clubs, I had a lot of coaches.”
PSG’s ‘architect’
Ibrahimovic was one of PSG’s first high-profile signings under Qatari ownership in 2012.
“I will still say I’m the architect of that club. … It’s fantastic to be in a club where you started from one thing, with all the respect from the past, and (see) what it is today,” Ibrahimovic said, adding of PSG’s first Champions League title last season: “I was happy when PSG won it.”
Ibrahimovic himself never won Europe’s biggest club trophy.
“Everybody knows I didn’t win the Champions League, so it’s no secret,” he said. “But the people will remember more that I didn´t win it than the 90 percent that won it.”
Work ethic vs. talent
Known for his powerful and acrobatic goals, Ibrahimovic highlighted his mentality and training methods for helping him rise to the top.
“It was like a survival mode, and I brought that with me,” he said. “I say always 50 percent is in your mind. It’s not only about the talent because the talent makes you over-confident. But the hard work makes you succeed and if you don’t do the hard work you will not arrive. The talent is not enough.”
Billionaire vs. millionaire
In all, Ibrahimovic played for nine different clubs, beginning with his hometown Malmö and also including the LA Galaxy before retiring with Milan in 2023.
While he said he respects players like Del Piero and Francesco Totti who spent decades with the same club, “the challenge is (when) you bring your zip pack, and you go to the garden of somebody else to prove yourself. That’s different, because then you come to a different country, different culture, different club.”
In his typical brash fashion, Ibrahimovic added that he would be happy to start his career all over again now, because then “I will be a billionaire, not a millionaire.”