Barcelona ‘willing to sell Zlatan Ibrahimovic’
Barcelona striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic could soon be on the move, according to club sources. They have said that the Swedish striker would be allowed to move on – but only if the price is right, sparking increased interest from the likes of Manchester City and AC Milan.
According to elmundodeportivo, the 28-year-old has decided a move to Manchester City and the English Premier League (EPL) is not for him, but he "would not say no to joining the Rossoneri".
After luring Ibrahimovic’s former teammate Yaya Toure from the Camp Nou, Il Corriere dello Sport has reported that City manager Roberto Mancini has once again followed up his interest in the forward. However, City look likely to sign Mario Balotelli from Inter Milan and may not feel the need to add any more options to their attacking department.
If they decide to maintain their interest, the spending power provided by City’s billionaire backers means they will not hold back from shelling out the huge sum needed to free Ibrahimovic from his contract with Barca. However, Milan would likely be forced into offering Brazil defender Thiago Silva as a makeweight in any deal for the Swede. New Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri is of the belief that Ronaldinho’s creativity and craft would benefit from having a big centre-forward such as Ibra to play off.
Any Milan move for Ibra could be tempered by the fact that he is a former player of their fierce rivals Inter. In a press conference held last week, Milan owner and Italy prime minister Silvio Berlusconi was lukewarm over the prospect of the Barca forward joining his club’s set-up. He said: "I don't know how well he'd fit into the Milan dressing room."
Ibrahimovic started out his career at Malmo FF in his homeland in 1996 and became part of the senior side in 1999. The club was relegated in his first season, but bounced back to the Allsvenskan league at the first time of asking. He performed reasonably well in his two first-team seasons at Malmo, scoring 16 times in 40 games. In 2001, the striker was sold to Dutch club Ajax for 7.8 million Euros.
Dutch champion
In his first season with his new club, the striker aided the side in winning the Eredivisie title. He netted a good return of 35 goals in 74 games for the club. In August 2004, the Swede faced controversy after injuring club teammate Rafael van der Vaart in an international match against the Netherlands, leading to claims from the Dutchman that Ibrahimovic had injured him intentionally. This lead to Ibrahimovic’s sale to Juventus the following January for 16 million Euros.
Ibrahimovic quickly found himself in Juve’s starting line up partly due to top scorer David Trezeguet’s injury problems. In November of 2005, he was named as winner of the Guldbolln, an award given to the best Swedish footballer of the year. After scoring 16 goals in his first season, Ibra took on more of a target man role and was less successful. Following a scandal which saw Juve relegated to Serie B, Ibrahimovic completed a 24.8 million Euro move to Inter Milan. He had a strong scoring record of 57 goals in 88 games with Inter, with the 26 strikes in his final season good enough to see him finish 2008-09 as top scorer in the Italian league.
Last summer saw the player move to Barcelona for a fee of 69 million Euros, the second highest transfer fee ever paid. Ibrahimovic repaid the faith the Catalan giants showed in him with a return of 21 goals in 29 games.
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