Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to the Italian football podcast. But no more big that are they than Zlatan Ibrahimovic. So this is I want to commemorate Zlatan's career because this was him his retirement number, wasn't it? Yes, it was. He didn't he retired from football in without telling anyone else, not even his family knew. And he decided it on his own and he walks out there and says that this is my goodbye to football.
Speaker: which makes it, which made it all very, very Zlatan way to do, to end things, to basically, you know, do it on his terms, like he's done his entire career, he's never really cared by anyone thought or thinks about anything, he just does it his way.
Speaker: And so we saw him come out there and no one knew what to expect, and you saw what it meant to people. I think Zlatan was fitting that he ended his career at Milan, where he is truly loved.
Speaker: He's respected at Barcelona, he's respected at UVA, he's respected at Inter, United, LA Galaxy, PSG, but he's not loved like that.
Speaker: He is loved at Milan and you saw that. And so I think it's incredibly fitting, you know, to see Sandro Tonali crying, to see everyone at their stadium with tears in their eyes and him as well. That was genuine. That's where he was most loved. That's where he felt the most at home. He even said so when he returned from Barcelona back to Italy. He said, you know, Milan gave me the smile on my face back.
Speaker: He really, really enjoyed life there. And even when he left Milan, and when he came back to Milan more than anything, like he said, when I returned, you gave me love. Because when he came back,
Speaker: that pretty much spring the beginning of the end of Milan's banterera. It was from that point on that Milan raised La Stichela, as they say in Italy, they raised everything. Every player took, he was the catalyst to raise Milan out of their decade -long slumber and banterera, quote -unquote. And
Speaker: the results speak for themselves. Seventh, second, first, fourth. Those are the results ever since Milan came back. And for that, he is loved and he will be loved forever at Milan. And I think that he will now be a, you know, he will go down as a Milan legend. He will go down as
Speaker: one of the most important people and characters, players in Milan's history, not maybe perhaps for the important trophies that they won, but for the importance in bringing Milan back to where Milan needs to be. And I think we'll see him now in some role for Milan, because I can't think of a better ambassador for Milan than Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Speaker: Yeah. And what an amazing goodbye as well. I mean, look at the choreography, the banner. I mean, that was just that was just beautiful genius. I mean, goodbye. I mean, the play on words that is, I mean, it was simple, but but so so powerful. Look, Serie A is the best and not Serie A. Italian football is the best at their praising their heroes.
Speaker: No one does it. In Italy, they never forget who their heroes are, and they always praise them in a way that no one else comes close in football, in my opinion.
Speaker: I mean, I was there when Zanetti had his retirement. I was there when Zanetti was his goodbye, and that entire night, an atmosphere around that was just unreal. Francesco Totti, those immortal words, that immortal sending off, that is just unbelievable. De Ross sees goodbye.
Speaker: You know, it's just Italians. No one does it like Italians when it comes to goodbyes and praising their heroes. And I think that's one of the aspects of Italian football that I truly love, love the most and I think is unique.
Speaker: Yeah, for sure. And of course, Salah Khan's career as a whole, just away from Milan, is legendary. I mean, over 500 career club goals, only 13 players in history of football.
Speaker: have scored more goals than Zlatan, which says it all. And I had a little look through that list earlier today. And I mean, he would be top 10. There's a few players from Northern Ireland who scored all their goals in the Northern Irish League that are in that list. So that tells you kind of where Zlatan is in the pantheon of attacking greats in terms of, certainly in terms of longevity, which is incredible. This is someone who made his debut
Speaker: He made his debut in 1999. He's been playing for four different decades. Four different decades. I mean, that's insane. That's the thing I want to say that I think is the most impressive. He scored in four different decades. And that's the thing that I, you know, Zlatan is not
Speaker: in the same category as Maradona, Pelé, Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Brazilian Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane, and so on. He's not in that category, and I think he would admit to that himself because he never reached those heights in terms of height at the level. But what he did do, which no other outfield player has done at that level, at this high level, is the longevity.
Speaker: But for an attacker, yeah, I don't think there's nobody that's had the longevity as an attacker at the highest level, as he had. I mean, you've got to remember, this is somebody who at the age of 40, to think at 40, he was still playing a pivotal role in Milan and Scudetto, which, you know, the first half of last season, he was, he was pivotal, and then obviously got more off the pitch in the second half of the season. But
Speaker: at 40 years of age.
Speaker: That's incredible. After Messi and Ronaldo, I think he has been the most consistent player in terms of his generation. I think of that generation, he is a distant, but he is a clear third behind them.
Speaker: I mean, his league winning record is unbelievable. I mean, he actually had a streak of one point of winning 12 league titles in a row, which was just insane. I mean, his one disappointment, we have spoken about this on the show today, his one disappointment was the Champions League. He never quite did it in the Champions League knockout stages.
Speaker: Internationally obviously he wasn't playing for the strongest nation so you can't really hold that against him but his idol Ronaldo I mean he joins his two idols Maradona Ronaldo and never really succeeding in the European Cup Champions League and of course being from Sweden.
Speaker: he had zero chance of doing anything in European competitions or international competitions. But despite that, and also that Swedish team where he had his greatest period when Sweden had some of the weakest Swedish sites, I can remember. Sweden's biggest chance was in 2004 in the Euros, when Jungberg, Hendrik Larsen, and Ibrahimovic were all kind of
Speaker: They all their peak kind of somewhat coincided with one another And you know, he was injured in the World Cup 2006 so look it's But at the same time he was the first player to score two goals in three consecutive European European championships obviously Ronaldo bettered that but No, look, it's
Speaker: his legacy is truly unique because of the player that he was. In Brazil, they combined capoeira with football, that kind of training, the martial arts, but he did it with taekwondo. Zlatan married taekwondo and football in a unique way. What
Speaker: and he raised, you know, if you look at the most. Well, we saw that in many of his greatest moments. I mean, I've just noted down here, what are his greatest moments of his career? And a lot of them are taekwondo -esque goals. I mean, the scorpion kick, for instance, that overhead kick for Sweden versus England, which I think is probably the goal of his career. I mean, that was just insane. I mean, overhead kick from near the halfway line.
Speaker: when he scored those four goals in 2012. I mean, the goal versus Italy in 2004 was acrobatically another kind of work of art, really, the way that he twisted his body. So, I mean, those are all, those will back that up. But I mean, he's had so many great moments in his career. I mean, the solo goal he scored for Ajax against NAC Breda was insane. Winning the Capo Canoniello with a back heel. I mean, if, if
Speaker: Francesco Totti is always, for me, linked with Cucchiaio, the lob. That's Totti. Equally, Zlatan is the back heel. I mean, some of the most amazing goals, he scored with back -heeled goals, and not just one or two. The back heel, that was his superhero speciality, the same way that Francesco Totti with the lob, the Palonetto, the Cucchiaio.
Speaker: It was, it's, yeah, it's truly, truly remarkable. And it feels a bit surreal, even though we all knew this day was coming. But I've spoken to people who on in Sweden, who also support all kinds of all sorts of teams. And they're like, it's a little bit of disbelief that, you know, he's been around for so long that it feels surreal that he's no longer plays football anymore.
Speaker: He leaves a legacy and a void that is truly, truly remarkable and unique, the character he was. Unique, definitely. His skill set was unique. Someone that's that big, six foot five, but to have the technical quality of someone that's half his size.
Speaker: That is amazing. And yeah, his personality for sure. I mean, he is one of the biggest personalities we have seen, ever seen in the game. I mean, you don't get characters like that anymore in modern football. They're all media trained. They're all robots. You saw that yesterday as well when Las Verona started booing and he immediately in the middle of his speech and said, come on, go on boo boo. This is the greatest night of your year seeing me.
Speaker: Yeah, but I mean, totally unique. You just don't get those personalities now. They're all just media trainers scripted and actually quite boring. The modern footballer is generally quite boring. And just in the Swedish context,
Speaker: there truly is a Sweden as a country before and after Zlatan Ibrahimovic. I don't think you can... It's so difficult to explain in words. I know that he's not very happy about it because he didn't choose to be the symbol of a lot of things that people projected onto him. It just so happened that the stars aligned that the world's most famous Swede and the world's most popular sport
Speaker: became an immigrant from a working -class poor area in Roosengord, which prompted a lot of establishment Swedes having to
Speaker: having to come to terms with what Sweden is and what Sweden as a country was and is, and he challenged that just by existing and just by being unapologetic about who he was and where he came from. He's never changed who he is. He's still that guy. He's never
Speaker: adapter to try to be anything. He is, as he says himself, I'm still the ghetto kid, like the attitude he has and how he talks. He's still that kid. He's not tried to be anything else than he isn't. And that's forced a lot of people in this country to have to come to terms with what is Sweden and what is Swedishness.
Speaker: which is unique. I can't think of many, very many other examples in footballing history where one person has an entire country had to come to terms with who they are just by existing, even though in a very political context, even though he didn't, he never tried it to be
Speaker: a political, he never tried to be political during his career. Towards the end he finally started speaking about it when protecting Bianco Luszewski, above all, in the Swedish national team. But that is unique as well. I can't think of very many other countries where a player
Speaker: has, just by existing, because of his background, polarised the country the way that he did. And it's truly, truly remarkable to see all of that play out. And the door that he kicked open, he didn't open them, he kicked open doors for players like Koulousevski, for Aleksandr Izisak, for all these other players with
Speaker: non Swedish names, traditionally ethnic Swedish names and backgrounds. That is something that the gratitude and death that is owed to him is is just you can't measure it in words. For sure.
