In the week that ended with Milan’s splendid victory in the derby, those at CBS Golazo interviewed RedBird’s Senior Advisor Zlatan Ibrahimović. He spoke openly about the most important topics related to the Rossoneri world while welcoming them to Milanello. The former Swedish champion began with a joke:
“You have to be on the right side of Milano. You know, there is the blue one and the red one. We are the fashionable side,” he laughed. “Welcome to Milanello!”
Who did young Zlatan look up to when he watched Milan?
“Marco van Basten. The funny thing is that when I went to AFC Ajax, he used to play there, and they compared me to him, so the pressure was already too high for me. I wasn’t ready to handle it at that level, because obviously he’s an icon, a legend. At this club he was part of the famous Dutch trio with Frank Rijkaard and Ruud Gullit. I was compared to him because I was a striker and because of the way I played… so he was my symbolic icon of Milan. He had a short career, but what he did will remain in history.”
On the Milan Futuro project, Ibrahimovic commented:
“In Italian culture everyone is focused on results. Young players and coaches all want to win. If I want to win, I’ll put in a ready-made player instead of someone with potential, and that risks blocking the younger player’s development. We’ve changed that at Milan. First of all, we want to give the young players game time, because when you’re young you have to play. If you don’t play in Milan Futuro, you play in Primavera, 100%. If you start in Milan Futuro but the pace is different, we move you to Primavera so you can grow and then bring you back up. It’s like a ladder you go up and down, with the goal of improving so that when you reach the first team it’s because of the results you’ve achieved.”
On the club’s history and tradition
“Seven UEFA Champions League titles, 19 league championships, the Ballon d'Or awards won by our players, all the international trophies we’ve lifted. The fans are used to this, if you don’t give them that, you’re not giving them Milan. And we have to give it to them.”
On Massimiliano Allegri, Ibrahimovic said:
“I had him as my coach. He’s very good at managing relationships with players and he’s handling the group perfectly. He already won trophies with Milan, and he was already very good when he coached me. He has character, also because it wasn’t easy when I played, since there were other strong personalities like Clarence Seedorf and Antonio Cassano. We weren’t afraid to say things openly, but Allegri had to think about the group, not the individual. He had to do what was best for the team, and he did it very well. Today he’s passing that on to the squad. The players back then were different from those today. Maybe the current ones have a little less character—and he would probably like them to have more.”
What is your relationship with Allegri like now that you have a different role?
“Working with Allegri is easy. He has experience and has been at very big clubs. He’s a winner, and being at Milan isn’t for everyone. He understands what it means to be at Milan, so he just has to make the players understand it too. Except Luka Modrić, you don’t need to explain anything to him. We also have Adrien Rabiot, who in my opinion is on another level. In this team we also have Mike (Mike Maignan), Christopher Nkunku, who arrived this year, and Rabiot. I played with them when they were 17 years old at Paris Saint-Germain, and today they are here at Milan.”
