2023-06-05 02:47:58
The Swedish football star, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, announced his retirement from football, at the age of 41, to end a long career with stardom.
Ibrahimovic said, to the crowd of fans present at the San Siro stadium, the stronghold of the Italian club AC Milan, in which he was playing, “I say goodbye to football, not to you.”
The player scored 511 goals for the clubs he played for during his career, including Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester United, AC Milan and Inter Milan, and won the league title in 4 different countries.
Ibrahimovic started his second journey with AC Milan, in 2020, and contributed to the team winning the league title last season, after he participated with the team in winning the double in 2011.
The star participated in 4 matches during the last season, started one match, scored only one goal, and despite the injuries he suffered, he completed his contract until the end of the season.
Ibrahimovic said, while fighting back his tears, “There are many emotions I am feeling now, forward Milan, and goodbye.”
He added, “The first time you came here, they gave me happiness, and the second time, you gave me love, you welcomed me and embraced me, and made me feel at home, and I will be Melania forever.”
Ibrahimovic won 34 titles, including 14 local league championships, and was nominated for the World Player of the Year award presented by France Football magazine 11 times.
The European Champions League was the only available title in the old continent that eluded Ibrahimovic at the club level, and his European titles were limited to the European League title with Manchester United in the 2017 season.
The star, the historic scorer for the Swedish team, is considered with 62 international goals, which he scored in 122 matches in which he participated, before he retired from international football after the European Nations Cup, in 2016, then returned in 2021, to support the team in the campaign to qualify for the World Cup in Qatar, but failed.
Ibrahimovic said, “I used to be terrified when journalists asked me about my future, but now I don’t, I am ready.”
He added, “I have been doing the same thing throughout my career. The idea of football made me a man, and allowed me to get to know many people whom I would not have known without football. I have floated the world thanks to it.”
Gold crowned march
Ibrahimovic started his football career with the football team in his hometown, in the Swedish city of Malmö, in 1999, before moving to Ajax Amsterdam in 2001, for 3 years, during which he won the league title 3 times.
Ibrahimovic then moved to Italian Juventus, and won with him two local league titles, Serie A, but later Al-Ittihad withdrew the two titles from the club due to the results-fixing scandal.
But he won the title again with Inter Milan before moving to Barcelona, Spain, in 2009.
Ibrahimovic spent one season with Barcelona, during which he won the Spanish League, before loaning him to AC Milan, then moving to him permanently in 2011.
After one year, he moved to Paris Saint-Germain, where he scored 113 goals with the team, during 122 matches in which he participated, and won the local title 4 times.
Ibrahimovic signed in 2016 for Manchester United for two seasons, with whom he won the League Cup and the European League.
In 2018, he moved to the American Los Angeles Galaxy for two seasons, before finally returning to AC Milan, to retire from his ranks.
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