Ibrahimovic: "At Milan, I have a finger in many categories"

Interviewed by The Athletic, Zlatan Ibrahimović talked about Milan, future ambitions, and more, directly from the New Jersey hotel where the Rossoneri team stayed during their 15-day tour in the States. Here are his statements:

On his role within Milan:
"I have a finger in many categories to bring results and bring up the value, all with an ambition to win."

Increasingly present and close to the team, but don’t call him a ‘baby-sitter’:
"The younger one is coming. But I keep silent. But I’m not a babysitter. My players, they’re adults and they have to take responsibility. They have to do 200 per cent even when I’m not there."

Would you like to coach someday?

"No."

Why not? Ibrahimovic replies:

"You see my grey hair? Fully grey hair is after one week as a coach. A coach’s life is up to 12 hours per day. You absolutely don’t have free time. My role is connect everything; to be a leader from above and make sure the structure and organisation works. To keep everybody on their toes."

He remains imposing, standing at 6ft 5in (197cm) tall, but also broad, muscular and so fiercely chiselled that he would not look out of place at the Olympics in Paris. Is there a sport he’d fancy his chances in?

“I would be the best in every ball sport,” he says. ”Martial arts — I could challenge. I used to do taekwondo. With my feet, I’m fast, I move well. I had the advantage of being 1.97m tall, but moved like a guy of 1.60m. That’s why I was a freak of nature. This is not me trying to impress you. These are true facts. But I like the adrenaline of taekwondo. I like duels. I need to feel alive. That is the only thing I miss with football. It is not actually playing football. I just miss sometimes feeling… alive.”

On the entertainment scene:

"I am curious about entertainment,” Ibrahimovic says. He suggested recently that he would make a fine James Bond villain. “But I only do things I believe in. I would not do it just to promote myself for nothing.”

On returning to Milan in 2020:

"When I came the second time, it was more about giving than taking. I wanted to open the way for a new generation. You’re the example, saying, ‘Listen, this is how it works’. When you’re in Milan, it’s the elite of the elite: pressure, demands, obligations. You have to take responsibility, become a man, because a player is not only about the field, but also the person outside. I was the reference point. I didn’t have an ego about it. I was like some kind of…”

He pauses, searching for the right phrase, “Guardian angel,” he decides. “So all the pressure would come onto me, not on them, but at the same time I pressured them.”

On the impact he had on the young Milan players at the time:

"It depends on the person. I didn’t need to score one goal more or one goal less. It would not change my career. It was more about preparing the future for the other ones because I believe this young generation needs a leader to follow. If you don’t have examples, especially when you’re playing at great clubs, who will show the way? I did it in a way where it was not about me, it was about the team. All these young guys that had never played in the Champions League and had never won. When you get older, you need to find trigger points. It’s not about contracts after 20 years. My trigger point was to show the path for the young team.”

It seems almost pointless to ask, but did he have any anxiety, or insecurity, when returning from MLS?

“No.”

Have you ever felt insecurity?

“No.”

How?

“It is because if I’m objective, I go all in, and then either you succeed or you fail. Is it a 50-50 chance? No, in my case, it’s 99-1. I will do everything to succeed. It’s all mental. I know how good I am. Even higher, actually, 99.9 per cent.

“It depends on you. I am sure about myself. The 0.1 per cent chance or 1 per cent chance (of failure) is depending on them. Either they follow or they go against, but whoever goes against, they fail. This time they followed. And we won.”

Did you change clubs to avoid getting bored with familiarity, a bit like tattoos?

"No. Changing clubs is about challenging yourself. I take my backpack and come to your garden. Different culture, different language, far from home. In your garden, your mother cooks for you, cleans your clothes, you have everything you want. You grew up and were born there. So you're in a comfort zone. I step out of my comfort zone and challenge myself."

Milan, says Ibrahimović...

"The first time it gave me happiness and the second time it gave me love."

His job is to provide guidance and leadership. Who provided that for him in his career?
"At Juventus, I had Fabio Capello. He was tearing me apart. But at the same time, he was building me up."

How?

"Easy. Today you were terrible. Tomorrow you'll be the best. And it would be like that. So, when you think you’re the best, he would tear you apart. Then it becomes confusion and you don’t know: ‘Damn, am I really the best or am I crap?’ So, when you were down, he was rebuilding you."

Did it work?

"I became the best. So yes."

Did Ibrahimović like it?

"I didn’t get it. It made my head spin... as if there was no balance. But it made me always give 200%. It formed me. But a club also needs an identity, culture, and tradition, besides a coach. A winner creates winners. Losers don’t create winners. This is a culture. So when you come to the club, as a young talent or player with potential, the club will shape you because you grow to understand how a club works and the surrounding environment. At Milan, we want to create this in a positive way."

On Mourinho and his experience at Manchester United:

"I was 35. I came to England. People said I’m too old, I should retire, blah blah blah. But this triggers me. This — I will prove you wrong. Jose was a machine. He brings the best out of you. He’s that person — manipulative. He knows how to get in your head. He knows how to treat you, independent of your level. He reminded me of Capello. But a newer version. Discipline. Hardcore. Intense. Not the soft types. This is what I like. Remember where I came from? My family is tough.”

The question I am trying to ask, though, is whether anyone would know from his home that Ibrahimovic has been one of the planet’s greatest players. Are there photos on show of bicycle kicks and trophy lifts?

“Zero,” he says. “You would only know from the materials (of the furniture) that I made money from playing. But I don’t have even one picture of me in my home. Because my partner (Helena) said, ‘We see you so much in general, I don’t need to see you at home’. So, zero pictures. If you go to my boys’ rooms, you will find some shirts from ex-players but ones they asked for. In the gym at our home, I put a famous picture of my two feet. That is for my family to know where everything comes from.”

Didn’t you score quite a lot with your head, though?

“That was at the end of my career. So not for that house. That house was sponsored by my feet.”

The hope will be that, one day, there may be contributions to the museum from Ibrahimovic’s sons, with Maximilian, a winger, set to play this coming season in the Italian third tier for the Milan Futuro team, which will compete in the division for the first time. When it comes to his children, Ibrahimovic is more measured.

“It’s not easy for him because, obviously, his father is who he is. So he carries a heavy last name. Wherever he goes, he will always be compared. But at Milan, in my role, I don’t see him differently from other ones. I don’t judge him as my son. I judge him as a player, like I judge all the others. He has to learn, he has to work and he has to earn. Then what happens, happens. He’s strong mentally. People think football is easy and that everybody arrives. But it is not the case.”

The upbringing for his children bears little resemblance to his own, in terms of wealth and comfort. “100 per cent,” he says. “He has to get that drive I had in different ways. Where he gets it, you have to ask him. I can only talk as a father. I gave him discipline, respect, and the hard work thing. You want something, you work for it. You will not get nothing for free here. And that is not only in the game. My job as a father is to make him independent when he grows up. If I don’t make him an independent, I failed.

“I try to keep the balance, because when I was young, my father couldn’t give me what I can give my son today. But my father did the best he could for me. And I’m doing the same thing for my sons. I couldn’t be more proud of them, as a father.”