On Sunday evening (June 4th) “San Siro” burst into tears. Milan were preparing a ceremony to say goodbye to the team’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic but it set off a… bombshell. “We welcomed you with open arms and you made me feel at home. I will remain a Milanista for the rest of my life. It’s time to say goodbye to football, not you.” she said with tears in her eyes.

The farewell ceremony for Ibra from Milan suddenly became the epilogue of a great career. The emotions were palpable, the standing ovations and the tears in the eyes of 23-year-old Sandro Tonali showed what Zlatan meant to these children.

A myth that insisted on comparing itself to God. After all, the Rossoneri fans honored him with their Koreo. The words “God Bye” were written on the mosaic in the stands of San Siro. A goodbye worthy of Zlatan’s greatness.

A career full of “gold”

His career is more than long. He has achieved things that some footballers would not even achieve in their wildest dreams.

His CV says it all… Paris 180 appearances – 156 goals, AC Milan 163 appearances – 93 goals, Inter 117 appearances – 66 goals, Ajax 110 appearances – 48 goals, Juventus 92 appearances – 26 goals, LA Galaxy 58 appearances – 53 goals , Manchester United 53 appearances – 29 goals, Barcelona 46 appearances – 22 goals and Malmo 8 appearances – 3 goals.

The trophies he won would comfortably fill one room in one house and some might need to be moved to a second. Ibra has celebrated winning 32 trophies with seven different clubs.

His titles in detail:

• 5 Italian Championships (3 Inter Milan, 2 Milan)
• 4 French Championships (Paris)
• 3 Italian Super Cups (2 Inter Milan, 1 Milan)
• 3 French League Cup (Paris)
• 3 French Super Cup (Paris)
• 2 Dutch Championships (Ajax)
• 2 French Cups (Paris)
• 2 Spanish Super Cup (Barcelona)
• Club World Cup (Barcelona)
• Spanish Championship (Barcelona)
• UEFA Super Cup (Barcelona)
• Europa League (Manchester United)
• English Super Cup (Manchester United)
• English League Cup (Manchester United)
• Dutch Cup (Ajax)
• Dutch Super Cup (Ajax)

Records were in his blood

Zlatan was a fighter. Until the last moment and despite his recent injuries, he didn’t say to give up. Because of this, his retirement from football came as a surprise. After all, it wasn’t many days ago that his name was linked to Silvio Berlusconi’s Monza.

That makes perfect sense considering he continued to break records into the final months of his career. It was only in March that Milan met Udinese and won on penalties. Ibrahimovic was the enforcer, putting the ball in the net with the second and making history.

At 41 years and 166 days, Zlatan became the oldest goalscorer in Serie A history, breaking the record by Alessandro Costacurta (41 years and 25 days old in May 2007). His career was of course full of records.

In total, he scored 156 goals in the first division of Italian football. Since his debut in the division in the 2004/2005 season, no foreign player (non-Italian) has scored as many goals.

Ibra also has an amazing… award. He was the first soccer player to score at least one goal every minute of the game. In fact, only Cristiano Ronaldo has managed to emulate him.

Furthermore, Ibrahimovic is the only player in the history of the sport to have played for seven different teams in the Champions League. He has featured in Europe’s top club competitions with Ajax, Juventus, Inter Milan, Barcelona, ​​AC Milan, Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester United.

Let’s not forget that the Swede also won the Puskas award in 2013 by scoring a goal poem with his national team shirt. He sent the ball into the English net with a reverse scissor in stoppage time to make it 4-2 for the Swedes. Absolute bang, as the English would say.

The connection Zlatan had to the net was really amazing. After all, he had won the award for top scorer in Ligue 1 and Serie A five times.

• 15/16 Ligue 1 – 38 goals
• 13/14 Ligue 1 – 26 goals
• 13.12. Ligue 1 – 30 goals
• 11/12 Serie A – 28 goals
• 08/09 Serie A – 25 goals

His clash with Pep Guardiola

Ibrahimovic’s career has also had its fair share of setbacks. One of them has to be seen as his tenure at Barcelona. Zlatan never stayed at Blaugrana, he was furious at how he was treated by Pep Guardiola.

“I learned a lot at Barcelona, ​​on and off the pitch. I learned that in football any situation can change within 24 hours. I don’t know what the problem was with me. Before I went to Barca, he called me every day. Day, suddenly the situation changed. It’s something that motivates me” eIbra said in 2017 about the current Manchester City manager.

In his autobiography “I am Zlatan” he continues his controversial attitude towards Guardiola, but also criticizes his training methods. In fact, he once reported on Sky Sports: “If you buy me, you buy a Ferrari.”

When you drive a Ferrari, you fill up on premium fuel, take to the national stage and step on the gas. Guardiola filled me with diesel for a walk in the countryside. He should buy a Fiat.

Zlatan has never been described as a good boy in his great career. He often clashed with referees, fans and footballers. An example is his outburst in 2015 when Paris were defeated against Bordeaux. A video that saw the light of day showed Ibrahimovic yelling at the referee: “Wake up, wake up, we’re not amateurs.

Cm@@@@@. I’ve never seen anything like it in the 15 years I’ve been playing football. I’ve been playing for 15 years and I haven’t seen good refereeing in this f@@@ country. This country is not worthy of Paris.”

Zlatan was never humble

Ibrahimovic never excelled in humility. He always made himself arrogant, always wanted to appear superior. He built a personality and somehow managed to “sell” his skills even more.

The eccentric Ibra even inspired the writers of the “Ted Lasso” series. So they created a character based on Zlatan and his quirks and named him Xava.

The arrogant Ibrahimovic had also given us epic rants that went down in history. When he’d left the galaxy, he’d boldly declared it “I came like a king, I leave like a legend.”

During his time at Manchester United he was asked who the best strikers in the league were, naming Lukaku and Aguero. The reason he didn’t put his name on the list? “Lions are no match for humans” underlined.

When he was in Paris, he even wanted a statue of him to replace the Eiffel Tower: “I don’t think they can replace the Eiffel Tower with a statue of me. But if they do, I’ll stay, I promise.” In addition, he had made it clear that he was… old enough to take exams: “Wenger asked me to try Arsenal when I was 17. I declined, Zlatan doesn’t take part in auditions.”

But the dialogue that has gone down in history and fully characterizes the Zlatan phenomenon is the following:

• Ibrahimovic: “God only knows who will stand.”
• Journalist: “It’s hard to ask him.”
• Ibrahimovic: “You talk to him.”

Ibrahimovic had made his name an absolute legend thanks to his performances on and off the pitch. Zlatan is a legend who will certainly be missing from the pitch. It remains to be seen if he will return from another post to bring us more great and epic moments.