Adrenalin is probably the best single word to describe Zlatan Ibrahimovic. He is still playing football but already became a football legend years ago. He scores beautiful goals, he is outspoken, he is adored or hated, he has played in the best clubs in the world and he has a new book, simply called “Adrenalin”. Ahead of today’s release, in probably the best interview he gave up to this point in his career, Ibrahimovic talked about everything and everybody. Talking to Corriere Dela Serra, the Swedish international was very personal when talking about his family and love life, his childhood and Slavic heritage, but also about football and his colleagues, former and present players, friends and enemies, and off course, he had some great game stories. If he did politics – he’d be a presidentAs a child of Croatian Catholic mother and Bosnian Muslim father, his childhood was interrupted by civil war in former Yugoslavia. Mainly because his parents, but also family tragedy. “My father was in a lot of pain. Every day news came of the death of a person he knew. He helped refugees. But he tried to keep me safe. He always tried to protect me. When his sister died in Sweden, he didn’t let me go to the morgue. However, when my brother Sapko died of leukemia, I was there. And my brother waited for me, he stopped breathing in front of me. We buried it with the Muslim rite. Dad didn’t shed a tear. The next day he went to the cemetery and cried from morning to night. Alone” recalls Zlatan.Zlatan in the spotlight – for all the wrong reasonsBeing a refugee in Malme. Sweden, was not such a good thing either. But it still had some good consequences for Ibrahimović, who learned to deal with hatred in a best possible way. “A child who has always suffered. As soon as I was born, the nurse made me fall from a meter high. I have suffered all my life. At school I was different: the others were blond with light eyes and a thin nose, I dark, brown, with a big nose. I spoke differently from them, I moved differently from them. My classmates’ parents petitioned to kick me off the team. I’ve always been hated. And at the beginning I reacted badly. Then I learned to transform suffering, and even hatred, into strength. If I’m happy, I play well. But if I’m angry, hurt, in pain, I play better. From a stage that loves me, I take energy. But from a stage that hates me, I take a lot more” says Ibra. (6.00) GENOA (3.90) MILAN (1.65)Former Juventus forward admits he didn’t have a lot of girls not only because he was shy, but because he was in love with himself. “In games I was looking for the circus act, because I had a bigger ego than all the Swedes put together. I changed in Italy. I said to Helena: come on let’s try, come with me to Turin, let’s see if it works. It worked. Capello taught me to watch the goal. And he slaughtered me, all the time. A very tough man. The first day, after the press conference, the celebrations and everything, I enter the locker room, he is reading the Gazzetta dello Sport, and I say: “Good morning mister!”. He doesn’t put down the newspaper. I stay there for a quarter of an hour, with the newspapers in my face. Then Capello gets up, closes the Gazzettone, and goes away, without saying a word to me. As if I didn’t exist” says Ibrahimovic. ‘I kissed Zlatan in the mouth and got a slap’While playing in Italy during various points of his career, Ibrahimovic was against a lot of good and dirty defenders, and he described them all. “Mihajlovic was bad on the pitch, as was Ballack, another professional provocateur; but he did it to give his comrades an advantage. Not like Materazzi. He came in from behind to hurt; and we footballers immediately understand when someone enters to hurt or simply enters hard, like Chiellini, like Stam, like Maldini. Paolo Maldini was very bad. If he wanted to hurt you, he knew how. But he avoided it, because he put his just wickedness at the service of the team. “I had an account with Materazzi for years. I paid for it in a derby. He enters with his feet up, I jump, avoid him, and hit him with an elbow to the temple. Pippo Inzaghi commented: “The best derby of my life: 1-0, goal from Ibra, Materazzi in hospital”. Obviously he was joking” recalls Ibra. ‘I don’t miss the Ballon d’Or, it’s the Ballon d’Or that misses me’ – Ibrahimovic shines as alwaysSurprisingly, former Manchester forward had a row with Romelu Lukaku, his former teammate. In an interview, he admits that he did provoke him by mentioning his mother and voodoo. “He quarrels first with Romagnoli, then with Saelemaekers; I intervene to defend my teammates, and Lukaku attacks me on a personal level. To be shocked. Yet we had been team mates at Manchester. Lukaku has a big ego, he is convinced that he is a champion, and he is really strong. But I grew up in the Malmoe ghetto, and when someone comes under me with their heads down, I put them in their place. So I hit him at his sweet spot: Mummy’s rituals. And he has lost control. But, we lost that derby. I was expelled. Then I got injured. A lot of bad things have happened. Do you want to see that the Lukaku rite really did it to me? So I asked my believing friends to pray for me. I have to settle the bill with him too. I hope to meet him soon” says Ibra. Ibra the singer, Ibra the lion killer and now Ibra the actor?PSG were among many big clubs for which Ibrahimovic played. And off course, he recalled what happened when he said that France is a ‘shitty country’ but also what has he advised Mbappe. “Marine Le Pen asked for my expulsion. The next day I feared the reactions on the street. Instead the French approached me to congratulate: Ibrahim, you’re right, it’s really a shitty country. Mbappe needs a more structured environment, like that of Real Madrid. But then I told the PSG president not to sell it” says Ibrahimovic.Zlatan Ibrahimovic killed a lion in South Africa?After an episode with L.A Galaxy, Swedish international wanted to go back to Italy and he chose Napoli, but in the end, it didn’t materialize. “I was tired of America. I thought about quitting. Mino Raiola told me: you’re crazy, you have to go back to Italy. It was done with Napoli; but then De Laurentiis chased Ancelotti out. So I asked Mino: which is the worst team that I can change? He replied: yesterday Milan lost 5-0 in Bergamo. So it’s decided, I said: let’s go to Milan. It’s a club I know, a city I like” explained Ibra.
