Los Angeles Galaxy striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic is gearing up to release another autobiography -it's going to be called *sigh* 'I'm Soccer'- which will detail the latter stages of his career.
An extract has been published in Swedish news outlet Aftonbladet, and describes how the 37-year-old tried to sabotage his move from AC Milan to PSG back in 2012.
The striker was unhappy when he realised that AC Milan chief executive Andriano Galliani had gone behind his back in trying to offload him to PSG, with his agent Mino Raiola breaking the news.
Ibrahimovic was in his summer home in Vaxholm when he noticed that I had five missed calls from his agent, Mino Raiola. Raiola informed him that PSG's sporting director Leonardo was going to call him:
I thought: ‘who’s Leonardo?’ And then the penny dropped that he was the sporting director at PSG. I said to Mino: ‘Listen, I’m not to talk to Leonardo because Galliani told me that I wouldn’t be sold this summer.’ Then Mino said ‘yeah, I know, but you’ve been sold already.’
Angered by Galliani's deception Ibrahimovic devised a plan to sabotage the move in order to get payback on his employers, though the plan somewhat backfired on him:
I spoke to Mino again and told him we weren’t going to make it easy for PSG. We were going to tell them that I wanted the same salary I had at Milan and we were going to ask for so much stuff that they’d think it wasn’t worth it. I told Mino to lay out all the conditions of my contract one by one. When we’d finished I said to my wife that they’d never accept all my demands, that there was no way it would go through. But 20 minutes later Mino sent me a text saying it had all been approved.
The deal would eventually be agreed to transfer the striker to the Ligue 1 club, with Ibrahimovic stating that he had to accept the deal as he is 'a man of his word'.
Looks like Galliani had the last laugh here.
