Zlatan Ibrahimovic is a Swedish professional footballer who plays for Serie A club, AC Milan. Let’s have a look at some of the renowned rivalries of Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
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Regarded as one of the greatest centre-forwards of his generation, Zlatan Ibrahimovic is a Swedish professional footballer who plays for Serie A club, AC Milan. Ibrahimovic is one of the most celebrated and decorated footballers ever having won 31 trophies across his career that has been a part of the last four decades. The 40-year-old has played for several clubs in different countries. He has represented some of the most historic and successful clubs in Europe like Barcelona, Manchester United, Juventus, Inter Milan, Ajax, AC Milan for whom he currently plays. Ibrahimovic has been crowned league champion in Spain, France, Italy, Netherlands.
Recipient of multiple domestic golden boots, Zlatan Ibrahimovic has also been named in the FIFA FIFPro World XI in 2013. The Swede has also won the 2013 Puskas Award for his outrageous bicycle kick against England. Due to his tall stature, he is a constant threat in the air along with world class finishing and passing. His athleticism and agility have allowed him to score spectacular goals from various positions on the football field. Known for his arrogant nature, Ibrahimovic has been involved in various feuds and has a history of rows with fellow professional footballers and sometimes even managers. Who can forget the famous disagreements and tensions between Pep Guardiola and Ibrahimovic? Let’s have a look at some of the renowned rivalries of Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
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Former teammates at Manchester United, Romelu Lukaku and Zlatan Ibrahimovic didn’t enjoy the best of relationships in Italy. A part of that might be blamed on the fact that both played for historic rivals, with Ibrahimovic being AC Milan’s main attacker and Lukaku representing the Nerazurri, Inter Milan. The tensions between the two forwards escalated to a very high level during the 2021 Coppa Italia clash between Milan and Inter.In what was termed as one of the craziest moments of 2021, Ibrahimovic made some rather unnecessary comments towards Lukaku which sparked an intense response from the Belgian in an empty San Siro.
The Swede had put his side in front in the match and Milan went in to the interval in the lead. However, the war of the words between the two stars caught all the attention. Reportedly, Ibrahimovic made some comments about Lukaku’s mother which in turn led the current Chelsea man to lose his cool and he too made some comments about Ibrahimovic’s personal life. Lukaku had the last laugh as he scored a penalty later on and Inter went on to win the match 2-1 and proceed to the next round.
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Ibrahimovic’s spell in England with Manchester United, although short was quite memorable and iconic. The forward scored important goals and won three trophies with United. However, he also endured some strained relationships with some of his teammates, one of them being, Marcos Rojo. During a match, with United winning 1-0, Rojo avoided giving a pass to Ibrahimovic which rather unsurprisingly led to a furious reaction from the striker. Owing to the response from Ibrahimovic, Rojo called him ‘big nose’. At the first-half interval, Ibrahimovic confronted Rojo in the dressing room about his comments. Rojo, who admitted that he was scared that the striker would kill him, also stated that the situation between the two got so tense that it needed the intervention of other players to separate the two players. Even, then Manchester United manager, Jose Mourinho had to come in and calm down the tense state.
In another addition to the list of teammates who didn’t go along well with Ibrahimovic is the former Dutch footballer, Van Der Vaart. The episode happened when both of them were teammates at Ajax in 2004. In a fixture between Sweden and the Netherlands, Ibrahimovic pushed aside a group of Dutchmen and in the process injured Van Der Vaart. In what seemed like a one-off normal professional injury, turned out to be much more than that. Being ruled out for two games or so, the Dutch midfielder came out in the media and accused his teammate of injuring him on purpose.
Although the striker held his stand that he didn’t do it on purpose, Van Der Vaart didn’t back off either. It was a situation that needed the intervention of the management to ensure the best interests of the club. Ibrahimovic also reportedly threatened Van Der Vaart that he would break both his legs if he was to accuse the Swede again. In 2011, when Tottenham faced Milan in the knockout stages of the Champions League, Tottenham’s Van Der Vaart stated that he would greatly like to play the ball between Ibrahimovic’s legs which indicated that even after seven years of their feud all was still not well between them.
