About to turn 40, Zlatan Ibrahimovic remains in the elite of football. With his impressive 1.95 meters and almost 100 kilos of weight, he managed to position himself as one of the most dominant attackers in the world. That led him to be a figure in major clubs in Europe such as Inter Milan, Juventus, Paris Saint Germain, Barcelona and Manchester United. He adds more than 500 goals in a career marked by his particular charisma, which generated many followers and several opponents of his way of being on and off the field.
While recovering from an injury to his left knee that prevented him from making his debut for Milan at the start of Serie A, the Swedish striker was the protagonist of an extensive note with the magazine France Football in which he spoke about his future after his retirement from professional activity and how he handles his personal life beyond his personality.
“When you get to a level like mine, you have no other choice. I am not here to share my life with everyone. I am a professional footballer, I share what I want to share. I’m not the Instagram clown who wakes up and wonders what the best greeting photo will be”, Said Ibra in relation to the exhibition of his life beyond sports.
“I want to share the things of my professional daily life. For me, there is privacy, which is very important. I don’t share that. And there is a professional life, I share it because it is part of my job. I do not hide anything. I just keep my privacy ”, added the Swede.
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When consulted for his way of being, in which he always shows himself as a man without fear and with a mental strength to face the challenges that arise in the game or his life, Ibrahimovic was forceful. “I have a part of fragility. I have emotions, parts of weakness, things that hurt me. I am not the Hulk. I’m not superman. You see me always confident in the field, outside as well, but I have a part of fragility. I have my weaknesses, my emotions. It’s natural”.
And he clarified: “I don’t think I played a role at any time. I am just myself. Now I have a family, two children, it is part of my life. You are going through new chapters. I am no longer 35, 30 or 25 years old. My way of thinking is no longer the same. But I stayed the same. It is the most important thing. I am more mature, I handle situations differently, on and off the pitch ”.
Ibrahimovic returned to the Swedish national team with the aim of leading the national team and trying to qualify for the next World Cup in Qatar 2022. That is why he renewed for a season with Milan, which in addition to trying to fight again for the title of the Calcio achieved the classification and will play the Champions League. But beyond this present, the future indicates that Zlatan is close to retirement.
What does the attacker think about the farewell to football? “For all the players, it is very difficult to retire. During your career, you are programmed. Every day you get up, you have breakfast, you train, you finish training, and then someone takes care of you, we make you lunch, you come home, you rest, you hang out with your family or whatever, and the next day it’s the same. You press ‘repeat’. ANDWe are programmed in our heads. And it’s been twenty or twenty-five years for me. You are no longer programmed and you are entering a new chapter in your life. And that scares me”.
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Faced with this future scenario, Ibra also left a sharp phrase about what he plans to be the beginning of his new life off the court. “After my career, I want to disappear … When you live in this world as long as I do, you know what you have been through mentally and physically. So, I just want to disappear and enjoy my life “, said.
In closing, the eccentric attacker couldn’t stop talking about his comparison with Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, the players who fought hand-to-hand as the best in soccer more than a decade ago.
“If we talk about intrinsic qualities, I have no less than them. When the group works, the individual benefits: the individual cannot be good if the team is not good ”, he clarified. And he added when they asked him if it is not a blemish for his career not to have won a Ballon d’Or. “Deep down, I think I am the best in the world,” he concluded.
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