ac milan<\/span> After two spells with the Rossoneri, as well as spells with city rivals Inter Milan, he credited the Italian league with molding him into one of the world’s top strikers during an entertaining on-stage discussion at this week’s European Football Clubs Conference.<\/p>\n“When I came to Italy, it was the biggest competition in the world and all the big players were playing there. I was young. To be honest, I didn’t have much respect, because I wanted to prove myself,” Ibrahimovic said.<\/p>\n
“But when I first came to Juventus, it was a bit of a fantasy world because I was from Ajax. In the Juventus dressing room, I saw (Lilian) Thuram, Buffon, (Fabio) Cannavaro, Del Piero, Trezeguet. These big stars and I were like a week before playing PlayStation with them. A week later I was with them in the dressing room.”<\/p>\n
\u201cI turned into an animal.\u201d<\/h2>\n
Ibrahimovic first met Fabio Capello, who had been appointed Juventus manager before his move in 2004, at a Bianconeri breakfast.<\/p>\n
Ibrahimovic recalled that Capello was reading the Gazzetta dello Sport.<\/p>\n
“I was like, ‘Good morning, mister.’ He didn’t respond, so I (inwardly) said, ‘Oh.’ I just said the wrong word. \u201dBut I let it go. I waited for about 5 or 10 minutes. He just put down the paper and walked out. I was just like, \u201cWow.\u201d This is on a different level. \u201d<\/p>\n
Ibrahimovic scored 16 goals in Serie A that season and eventually came to Capello’s attention.<\/p>\n
“I asked him, ‘How do you get respect from your group?’ Because he had world-class players in his team and everyone thought, ‘I’m the best in the world.’ And they were the best in the world,” Ibrahimovic said. “He said, ‘I don’t ask for respect. I receive respect.'” That’s what he did to me during breakfast without talking to me.<\/p>\n
“He was demanding. His discipline was very high. So he brought me up and pushed me to the ground. So one day I could be the best in the world and the next day I could be the worst player in the world. That’s why he motivated me and played with his heart to bring out the best in me,” Ibrahimovic added. “He shaped my spirit. I went from being a normal human being to an animal.”<\/p>\n
Ibrahimovic went on to win five Serie A titles, three trophies with Inter and two with Milan. Capello’s Juventus team was stripped of the Italian league title twice due to the Calciopoli scandal.<\/p>\n
Mourinho, Guardiola, Ancelotti<\/h2>\n
Ibrahimovic also played for Inter, Manchester United’s Jose Mourinho, Barcelona’s Josep Guardiola and Paris Saint-Germain’s Carlo Ancelotti.<\/p>\n
“They changed football. They changed the game in their own way,” Ibrahimovic said. \u201cI changed clubs a lot, so I had a lot of coaches.\u201d<\/p>\n
PSG’s “Architect”<\/h2>\n
Ibrahimovic was one of PSG’s first high-profile signings under Qatari ownership in 2012.<\/p>\n
“I would still say that I am the architect of that club. … It’s great to be at a club that started with one thing, with respect for the past,” Ibrahimovic said, adding of PSG’s first Champions League win last season: “I was happy when PSG won it.”<\/p>\n
Ibrahimovic himself has never won Europe’s biggest club trophy.<\/p>\n
“Everyone knows that I didn’t win the Champions League, so it’s not a secret,” he said. “But people will remember the fact that I didn’t win more than the 90% that won.”<\/p>\n
work ethic and talent<\/h2>\n
Ibrahimovic, known for his powerful and acrobatic goals, highlighted the mentality and training methods that help him reach the top.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was like survival mode and I brought it with me,\u201d he said. “I always say that 50% is in the mind. It’s not just about talent, because talent makes you overconfident. But hard work makes you successful. You can’t succeed without hard work. Talent alone is not enough.”<\/p>\n
Billionaire vs Billionaire<\/h2>\n
Ibrahimovic played for a total of nine different clubs, starting with his hometown Malmo and including LA Galaxy, before retiring with Milan in 2023.<\/p>\n
Although he respects players like Del Piero and Francesco Totti, who spent decades at the same club, he said: “The difficult thing is to take your zip pack and go to someone else’s garden to prove yourself. That’s different, because then you’re coming to a different country, a different culture, a different club.”<\/p>\n
In his usual cocky manner, Ibrahimovic added that he would now happily start his career over again because “I will be a billionaire, not a billionaire.”<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP Soccer: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/soccer<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\n
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