Roaring success
The two-goal Wembley hero is raising standards again at United, after the club had lost their way
Ibrahimovic on being a ‘lion’ and why he will quit at the top
The show, it turns out, did not end with a late winning header on the Wembley turf. By the time Zlatan Ibrahimovic emerged from the dressing room, fresh from his latest rescue act for Manchester United, the man who had just crushed Southampton’s dream by winning the EFL Cup for his club seemed intent on creating a little more drama.
On the one hand, Ibrahimovic refused to offer any guarantees that he would still be at Old Trafford next season, despite insisting his future was not dependent on United qualifying for the Champions League. “Let’s see what happens,” he said.
In the same breath, he suggested he would not have been at the club at all had his children not persuaded him to move there on a free transfer from Paris St-Germain last summer, before a call from Jose Mourinho sealed the deal.
“I had my mind somewhere else, then my kids started to bump my head and Jose called, then I am here,” he explained.
It seems Maximilian, 10, and Vincent, eight, may struggle to twist their father’s arm again, though, if he decides not to take up the option to extend his contract by another 12 months.
“They are satisfied with what I am doing, but this time I am the boss,” Ibrahimovic said, teasingly. But would it not be downhill after leaving, he was asked? “For me, or the club?” he replied, deadpan, a twinkle in his eye.
As an indication of the supreme self-confidence that drives this extraordinary footballer, it was telling. But it also offered a glimpse of his mischievous sense of humour, a trait that is often mistaken for arrogance.
Much like Eric Cantona, whose immediate impact at United in 1992 Ibrahimovic is echoing 25 years on, the Swede has an acute sense of theatre, on and off the pitch, and while some United supporters might fret about the prospect of him departing after one season, the probability is he knows he is staying, he just likes to cause a stir.
What was unequivocal, though, was Ibrahimovic’s determination to retire at the top. He will not trade on his name, although after chalking up the 25th and 26th goals of his outstanding debut season in England during Sunday’s 3-2 victory, he looked a long way off being someone whose powers are close to waning.
Now 35, he acknowledged himself that he is getting better with age. “I feel like a lion,” he said, which prompted an amusing exchange with one journalist.
“What makes you want to be like a lion?”
“I a lion,” he said, puzzled it could ever be in doubt. “I don’t
to be a lion.” “OK, you are the lion,” his inquisitor conceded. “Is it the hunger of the lion you have?”
“The lion is born a lion … that means I am a lion,” Ibrahimovic responded, as if it were stunningly obvious.
The League Cup yielded the 32nd piece of silverware of Ibrahimovic’s career. He says he built a personal museum to house all the silverware, but it is his remarkable ability to keep looking forward, to want to keep winning rather than dwell on the past, that singles him out. If some players start to wind down after turning 30, Ibrahimovic has done the exact opposite.
He has scored almost as many goals for club and country after his 30th birthday (249) as the former Liverpool, Real Madrid, United and England striker Michael Owen did in his entire career (262).
But for all Ibrahimovic’s talent, he is the first to admit it would count for a lot less without hard work, and there was a blunt message to some of modern football’s young players.
“I need to train hard and I need to suffer when I train, that is how I achieve what I achieve,” he said. “I’m from the old school, where they work hard and get what they get from doing the hard work, not like the new school, where it is easy to get what you want.”
This is the point about the legacy Ibrahimovic will leave at United.
It will not be solely about goals and trophies. He is also raising standards again at a club who had lost their way, and youngsters such as Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial and Timothy Fosu-Mensah stand to benefit in a way that Ryan Giggs, David Beckham, Paul Scholes and others did from Cantona and Roy Keane.
The only sadness is that Ibrahimovic did not come to England sooner.
That admission must amuse the Swede as much as help to sustain his thirst to keep sticking two fingers up at the doubters, if they exist, given how some used to