Zlatan Ibrahimovic isn’t one to shy away from confrontation.
On Thursday the 39-year-old faced off against Manchester United for the first time since leaving the club, as the Red Devils knocked AC Milan out of the Europa League.
Ibrahimovic was obviously unhappy his side couldn’t progress to the quarter-finals and admitted this current Man United team is better than the one he played in under Jose Mourinho.
But despite the compliment, the Swede couldn’t help aiming a dig at United.
“I think it’s better, it looks better, but it doesn’t matter if you don’t win nothing. I think it was better than mine, but I won trophies, that’s the big difference,” he said.
(Image: NurPhoto/PA Images)
All things considered, Ibrahimovic’s relationship with United is a positive one. He’s remembered fondly, and he made many good friends during his short stint at Old Trafford.
But one incident was a little more firey than your average.
Marcos Rojo once rubbed the Swede up the wrong way, and Ibrahimovic made his anger known in the United dressing room before Mourinho stepped in and calmed the situation.
Rojo recalled in an interview with Cielo Sports: “Zlatan has a strong character, Ezequiel Lavezzi had warned me.
“I knew he wanted us to give him all the balls, but during a game phase I saw him ask for it and I didn’t give it to him. I passed it to Paul Pogba. Then he started yelling at me, raising his hand, and telling me a lot of things in Spanish and English.
(Image: AFP/Getty Images)
“I said to him, ‘What’s going on with you big nose? Shut up.’ I knew that if he caught me, he would kill me so the only thing for me to do was face him. When he entered the locker room, I directly told him to close his mouth and stop yelling.
“We started to insult each other and all our teammates were watching us.
“And in the middle, Jose Mourinho was trying to calm us down.”
