Be careful, one Ibrahimovic can hide another! When Zlatan, the Swedish AC Milan legend, trained and then played a match with his 16-year-old son a few weeks ago, a perfect namesake started to make a name for himself in the Bavarian side. A big fan of the former Parisian, Arijon is playing at Bayern Munich, with the U18s, where he has just extended his contract until 2025.
A phenomenon of precocity, the 17-year-old native of Nuremberg comes from a family of Kosovar origin. For the record, the former Parisian is of Bosnian origin by his father and Croatian by his mother. Arijon’s real name is, moreover, Ibrahimi and not Ibrahimovic as explained by Eliot Ahmeti from the twitter account Kosovar football. “His name has been Slavized. It’s a kind of cultural assimilation carried out by the Serbs in the 90s. The Albanians and Kosovars never have names in ‘ic’”.
Much smaller than his elder (1.76 m against 1.95 m), he evolves lower on the ground, more in an attacking midfield position. His versatile profile is reminiscent of that of Jamal Musiala, the 20-year-old Bavarian phenom. Like the German international, Ibrahimovic is a free electron. He wanders all over the front of the attack. “He scores a lot of goals and is very complete. For now, he has centre-forward stats. Every time I saw him with the young people in the Germany team, I found him superior to the others, assures Ahmeti. It remains to be seen if he will make it to the pros. »
“He has a very rigorous work ethic”
If Eliot Ahmeti is so interested in it, it is because the Kosovo Football Federation (FFK) hopes to see him wear the jersey of the national team. “In Kosovo, we necessarily try to recover him but he should play with Germany. We experienced the same thing with Xherdan Shaqiri and Granit Xhaka (both players are Swiss internationals) “In 2020, the FFK even sent a request to Bayern, refused by the Bavarian club, to summon him with his U19s. “We follow him but we don’t have too much hope of seeing him evolve with us, adds Ahmeti. He often returns to Kosovo, remains attached to his culture and we know that for him, Germany is probably not the choice of the heart, but a completely logical sporting choice. »
The young boy is starting to make a place for himself in the bloated squad of the Bavarian club and now has a few appearances on the bench. On February 11, he even took his first steps in the Bundesliga by entering the end of the match against Bochum (3-0 victory). A convincing debut for the one who joined the club in 2018 and has evolved in all youth categories since. With his friend Paul Wanner, only 12 days younger, they are the future of the club. “Ibrahimovic was already training with the pros at 15,” notes Ahmeti. He has a very rigorous work ethic. He is part of this generation of young people influenced by Cristiano Ronaldo.
For a similar fate? Arijon Ibrahimovic has been announced as a big potential for a long time. In northern Bavaria, he has always impressed. Quickly integrated into the youth teams of Greuther Fürth then that of 1.FC Nuremberg, he is distinguished by his ease with the ball, his dribbling and his sense of goal. “He has the characteristics of a Balkan player with this “street football” side and conversely, he has this “school” side of Western Europe, notes Ahmeti again. This mixture is the cocktail that can take him very high. “Bayern is waiting for that.
