You Dont Have to Do It Again
"I t'due south not easy. Every twenty-four hours I wake up, I accept pain everywhere," Zlatan Ibrahimovic says equally he resists the inevitable finish on a beautiful afternoon at Milanello. The mighty Swede grimaces before fixing me with his familiar stare of cocky intensity at Milan's famous old training ground. This is how much it takes to remain an elite footballer at the age of 40.
Ibrahimovic continues to inspire a young Milan squad and to play football at the highest level while sparking controversy and embracing the wonder of being Zlatan with amusing gusto. He knows we are all going to dice, or retire, but here is the defiant Ibrahimovic mantra:
"This morning I had pain everywhere just as long as I have objectives, as long every bit I have adrenaline, I proceed going. I know I'm coming to something good. I'm coming to somewhere I need to work to keep myself at the top.
"I will continue doing it as long every bit I can. I don't want to take that regret if I stop then, in a couple of years, I'1000 sitting with you lot and saying: 'I could have continued considering I was feeling good.' Information technology's better to be totally finished and say: 'I cannot do it any more.' Merely I can all the same do information technology and I am doing it."
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On Sabbatum, away against Fiorentina, Ibrahimovic scored 2 and ready a third goal. Simply Milan remain a piece of work in progress equally they lost iv-3 and are second in the tabular array behind Napoli on goal difference.
He returned to Milan for his 2d spell with the social club in late December 2019. After a serious genu injury hastened his departure from Manchester United in 2018, he spent two years playing for LA Galaxy. Such a stint in the U.s.a. normally marks a lucrative swansong for a feted European thespian. Just Ibrahimovic is different and he came back to Milan with a new goal. He wanted to transform the youngest squad in Serie A and instil his formidable fight into players who revere him.
He continues to stoke his own fire and as he proved simply over a calendar week ago when barging into César Azpilicueta during Sweden's final World Cup qualifying group friction match, Ibrahimovic still adheres fiercely to his behavior. Earlier nosotros reach this contentious betoken, the middle‑anile bohemian reiterates his worldview. "It's not virtually contracts or being famous. I don't demand that. The simply thing that keeps me going is the adrenaline because every morning I have hurting everywhere. Merely getting ii more followers volition not heal yous. Getting more money will not heal you. Getting attention will non heal y'all. What will heal you is adrenaline.
"I don't have issues suffering. For me, to suffer is similar breakfast. But many people don't empathise suffering because the new generation, with all these platforms, have to practise lilliputian to become credit. The generation before that you had to do a lot to get a fiddling. I'm very proud I came from the old generation."
In their Champions League group with Liverpool, Atlético Madrid and Porto, Milan are struggling. Only they have the youngest team in Europe'due south premier competition. "Even if I'm there," Ibrahimovic says. "It'due south incredible. They make me look young. It has this event, similar Benjamin Button. After six months here you will have dark hair, trust me."
Ibrahimovic points to my white pilus and laughs earlier condign serious. "I'm very proud because I see these immature players taking more responsibility, the mentality changing. That is my happiness now. That is my adrenaline. I become out and run as much equally them.
"I've been doing it for 20 years. People recollect: 'No, Ibrahimovic, you need to stop.' My mentality says unlike. I do it because when the young players meet me work they say: 'Afterward all he has done he is all the same [working]. I have to do information technology because he has done everything.' It's a bit of – not manipulation – just showing them by instance.
"I'one thousand not that dog that barks and does nothing. I'm the opposite. When I was first hither [from 2010 to 2012] nosotros were superstars. Now it's full of talent, the youngest squad in Europe, but we're on top. So information technology's a unlike project and it's more satisfying because if y'all succeed with superstars, it's expected. This is not expected."
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I measure of Ibrahimovic'south longevity is that he played against Paolo Maldini who was a giant in the Milan defence from 1984 to 2009, when he retired at 41. Maldini epitomised Milan'due south reputation for extending the careers of peachy players and it is striking that his 20‑yr‑old son, Daniel, plays alongside Ibrahimovic. Are father and son like?
"One is Mr Overnice Guy. The other one, if he wants to kill you, he will kill you. I'k happy they're not the same because information technology'southward non piece of cake for the son to be compared with the begetter, especially when the father has the career he had. We are helping the son in every way. He'south a big talent, but I tell him: 'Simply play your game, fight, and then you will lead the way yourself.' I'm happy. I played against the father and today I'm playing with the son. Perchance [Daniel] volition take a son …"
There's an ambition, I say, to go along going until the next Maldini arrives at Milanello. The miracle of Zlatan will be complete. "Information technology'due south already a miracle," Ibrahimovic says with a grin before he picks upward my notebook. He studies my scrawled 48 questions that stretch beyond three pages. "You brought a whole volume with y'all. My time is very expensive. Simply you take your piece of work very serious and there's a lot to talk nigh."
I inquire Ibrahimovic if he is almost glad he came from a hard past in Sweden, when he was "a punk from Rosengård", an immigrant neighbourhood in Malmö, and the son of a Bosnian caretaker and a Croatian cleaner. "I'm not here to say I'thou cool because I came from the ghetto or that you should feel deplorable for me because I came from there. Y'all make the all-time of information technology and and then it depends on you."
Ibrahimovic leans forward. He is in full menses now. "Life is up and downwardly. If everything was perfect, we accept nothing to talk virtually. Nosotros still do mistakes. Nobody is perfect. On digital platforms yous put out a picture with xx filters and you look perfect. Merely when I see you in reality you're not perfect. Yous look normal like everybody else. People pretend they are perfect. I say: 'I am perfect when I'm myself.' Information technology doesn't mean I will not practice mistakes. But I learn from them.
"The other day in the national squad, I gave a tackle to [Spain'southward Azpilicueta]. I did it on purpose. I'g not ashamed to say it because he did something stupid to my role player. Acting big to my player. It was a stupid affair just I would even so do it to make him empathise: 'Yous don't fucking do that. You don't accept assurance to practise information technology against me. But I volition prove you what happens if you do information technology to me.' That'southward why I did it."
Sweden conceded the merely goal of the game in the 86th minute and Ibrahimovic set about his lesson deep into added time. Equally a corner was taken he careered into Azpilicueta, hitting him with his shoulder as he sent the defender crashing to the ground. It looked vicious.
Did Azpilicueta say annihilation after the game, which sealed Spain'southward Earth Loving cup qualification ahead of Sweden? "What can he say? He will not say information technology to me merely he will say it to my player – who volition do zip considering he's besides overnice. It was not a good thing by me, but I would still do it. That's me. I'm non aback to say it."
He was booked and Ibrahimovic will miss Sweden's first play-off friction match in March. "It's non about missing the play-offs. It's about making the guy sympathize you don't take the piss out of somebody laying [on the ground]. Yous don't set on a dog that doesn't talk. Assail the i able to do something. It's too easy to pick on my teammates who are 20 years old and very dainty guys. I hope he understands now."
Two of Milan's charming media team, who sit in on our interview, take notes at speed. Ibrahimovic doesn't care. "I'chiliad non afraid to say it to you lot," he stresses, concentrating on our chat. "I did a stupid thing. [But] I will practice it over again. 100%."
Is he being truthful to himself? "Exactly. That is what I say about being 'perfect'. Being myself is perfect for me. I don't need filters to ask them what kind of questions you will requite me."
His 2 seasons at Manchester United were partially successful and Ibrahimovic says: "I had a peachy experience in England. Manchester United are an amazing club and we won a couple of trophies [the League Cup when he scored two goals in the final and the Europa League]."
Because the ongoing travails of United, who remain in thrall to the Ferguson years, Ibrahimovic says: "They talk too much about the past. When I went there I said: 'I'thousand here to focus on the present and to make my own story.' But when you have too much it becomes like a loop. Yous have to think well-nigh the present or yous should become to a hospital and clean your head."
The Premier League is an addictive soap-opera simply did it seem overrated? "The quality is overrated in a technical mode. Just the Premier League has different qualities – the pace, the rhythm. Y'all can exist the best thespian in the world but if you cannot handle that footstep and rhythm [yous won't succeed].
"In Spain, France, Italy, the technique is better. That'southward why there are so many foreigners in the Premier League. They bring the technical [aspect]."
I also interviewed Ibrahimovic on 6 October 2014 – his 33rd birthday. Nosotros met in Paris, as he played for PSG then, and his sons Max and Vincent had woken him by singing Happy Altogether. "They're 13 and 15 now," he says, almost wistfully. "Fourth dimension flies."
Information technology'southward the first time Ibrahimovic has been separated from his family unit considering he and his wife want their boys to exist settled at school in Sweden. "It's non easy but my married woman takes skilful care of the children. Nosotros make it work. When there is free fourth dimension nosotros meet each other and we are all happy."
In March 2020, six weeks after returning to Milan, the whole of Lombardy was in the grip of Covid. Ibrahimovic remembers how the eerie silence was cleaved only by the ambulance sirens. He donated €100,000 to the fight against coronavirus and led campaigns to spread sensation and encourage the wearing of masks. Just without his family and football game how did he feel at the start of the pandemic? "I was alone. Things were very strict and you couldn't travel. It was strange because in those moments you stay with your close ones and I couldn't. Simply then they opened up a little and I travelled home and stayed with them for two months."
The virus remains and he still gets caught upwardly in controversy. I have interviewed LeBron James twice before and I tell Ibrahimovic I was disappointed that he and the NBA giant have fallen out. They have much in common but Ibrahimovic chose to criticise James for making political statements. I believe James is America'southward well-nigh significant sportsman considering of his readiness to telephone call out racial injustice and brutality.
"Sport unites people. Politics carve up people," Ibrahimovic says. He listens carefully when I explicate that I grew upwards in South Africa and the sports boycott confronting apartheid in the 1970s offered my starting time lessons in how racism deforms order. "If nosotros talk almost racism, information technology's something else. That'due south something I don't agree with. But I don't do politics. If I did, I would be a president now."
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It seems a shame he tin can't talk openly with James. "I don't know him personally. I don't judge him. Whatever he does with racists, he is right, because when fifty,000 call you a fucking gypsy, it'southward the same. That is [also] racism. But I don't do politics. I do sport. That's the way yous spread love."
Nosotros concur to disagree and he smiles when I ask if anything scares him about his time to come without football game? "If I worry about the future, I'm not focusing on today. I'yard present time. Carpe diem."
Then, with a handshake and warm words, the great old warrior slips back out into the autumnal sunshine. He raises his hand in a final wave equally he returns to work but the stop, for Zlatan Ibrahimovic, is still not here.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/nov/22/zlatan-ibrahimovic-interview-milan-cesar-azpilicueta-sweden
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