Zlatan Ibrahimovic, a Swedish striker who plays for AC Milan, said on Sunday that he would hang up his cleats after a trophy-filled career playing for some of the best teams in Europe. Ibrahimovic is now 41 years old. After enduring a season marred by injuries and being forced to call it quits on an otherwise remarkable career, Zlatan’s current deal is set to expire at the end of June, and it is not expected to be extended.
San Siro's final tribute to 𝙕𝙡𝙖𝙩𝙖𝙣 𝙄𝙗𝙧𝙖𝙝𝙞𝙢𝙤𝙫𝙞𝙘́ 🌟#SempreMilan pic.twitter.com/9XTYZ0QtNt
— AC Milan (@acmilan) June 5, 2023
After previously playing for Milan and helping them win the Scudetto in 2011 and again in 2018, Zlatan Ibrahimovic returned to the club at the beginning of the 2020 season for his second tenure with the club. After Milan’s 3-1 season-ending victory over Hellas Verona, he remarked, “I say goodbye to football but not to you.”
ZLATAN’S CAREER IN TROPHY LADEN
Zlatan started his professional career in 1999 with Malmo FF and then went on to Ajax Amsterdam in 2001. After that, he continued his career with Manchester United, Inter Milan, and Milan, respectively. Ibrahimovic moved back to Milan at the beginning of 2020 for his second tenure with the club. He had previously won the Scudetto with Milan in 2011, and he had helped them win it again only the year before.
Ibrahimovic is Sweden’s all-time top scorer with 62 goals scored in 121 total matches played for the national team. After the conclusion of Euro 2016, he stepped away from the national squad, but he rejoined it in 2021 for the unsuccessful qualifying campaign for the World Cup.
EMOTIONAL PRESS CONFERENCE
“I thank the journalists for your patience, now you’ll have less work to do without me … From tomorrow, I am a free man from this world of football,” Ibrahimovic told reporters in a press conference after the announcement he was retiring.
“It was a long career, really long, thank you to everyone who gave me the strength, the adrenaline and the emotion to continue.”
When asked about his intentions for retirement, Ibrahimovic avoided answering any questions and refused to share any information.
“For the moment, I just want to take some time and enjoy what I’ve done. It’s not right to make decisions in a hurry, there’s too much emotion right now. I want to take the summer off, reflect and then we’ll see.”
When asked who could take Ibrahimovic’s position, he gave a straightforward response.
“Impossible, there is only one Zlatan! As a child, they compared me to (former Netherlands striker) Marco van Basten, but he is who he is and I am who I am.
“There might be similarities, but I don’t think comparisons are right. I doubt we’d find another Zlatan with my ego…”
At the conclusion of the press conference, he said that it had been an emotionally draining evening for him.
“I could not have dreamed of a night like this. From the first day, I felt at home with Milan, the old and the new version. When I leave here, I will miss it a great deal. Today, they dragged the real Ibrahimovic out.”
