Football Special Report: Serie A special - Capocannoniere candidate Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Zlatan Ibrahimovic is one of the biggest football stars in today’s game. The Rossoneri number 11 was born on October 3rd 1981. Despite being a Bosnian by heritage, Zlatan decided to represent Sweden at the international level.
Zlatan started his career from his home town club Malmö FF where his talent was soon spotted by the Ajax Amsterdam scouts. Ibra dazzled the crowds during his time in Netherlands. His outrageous goal against NAC on 22 August 2004 was eventually voted as the
“Goal of the year “by Eurosport viewers. Zlatan beat the entire midfield and a plethora of defenders with his skill before finishing off coolly. His prodigious skill earned him a move to Turin giants Juventus FC.
Zlatan was less prolific during his time at Juventus as he was played primarily as a playmaker. With the likes of David Trezeguet and Alessandro Del Piero spearheading the attack, Juventus won consecutive Scudetto. Zlatan provided numerous assists to the
duo while scoring 23 league goals himself. In the wake up 2006 Calciopoli and Juventus’ subsequent relegation to Serie B, the striker decided to move to fierce rivals Inter Milan, a move that Bianconeri faithful deemed an act of betrayal.
With Nerazzurri, the striker scored a spectacular 57 goals in just 88 league appearances. In the three seasons, the striker spent at San Siro where the Swedish striker won Capocannoniere award on all three occasions. A striker can’t really get any better
than that.
FC Barcelona approached the striker in the summer of 2009 and coach Jose Mourinho decided to cash in on the superstar. His part exchange transfer was valued at an astounding 69 million Euros, making it the second highest transfer fee in football’s history.
His time at Camp Nou was less glamorous. The striker lost his scoring touch after an explosive start where he led the Pichichi charts with seven league goals from seven matches. Ibra suffered an injury in November and failed to find his rhythm upon his return.
Coach Guardiola lost faith in the striker and the striker was subsequently benched in favour of a younger Bojan. It was getting clear that Ibra was not the right man for the trademark touch-and-go football that Barcelona played. His cause was not aided by
his public falling-out with his coach and the striker was duly dispatched to AC Milan on a loan deal with subsequent rights to purchase the player outright.
Milan’s purchase of the player is considered something of a transfer coup as Milan lacked the resources to sign a superstar whose annual wages amount to an astonishing 9 million Euros annually. At San Siro, the striker will have all the freedom and opportunity
to make his name. Milan offloaded Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Marco Borriello upon his arrival, an act that shows just how much faith the Milan hierarchy has in the Swedish player’s talents. Upon his arrival, Director
Adriano Galliani said, “I don’t know if Zlatan knows this, but Milan’s all time tops corer is Gunnar Nordahl. We expect Ibrahimovic to break his record”. Nordahl; also a Dutch player, is Milan’s all time top scorer with 210 league goals from 257 appearances.
Although Ibra will never be able to break such a legendary record, however, it does put further emphasis on the role Ibrahimovic has to play at the club.
Ibrahimovic’s record in Serie A speaks for himself. He knows how to score in Serie A, better than everybody else. He has the genius of Ronaldinho providing him service as displayed during the recent fixture against Auxerre when Ibra scored a brace. Moreover,
AC Milan’s style of play will suit Ibrahimovic perfectly as he will be featuring as a lone striker in a 4-3-3 formation. Ibra won the Capocannoniere title in 2008/09 season under Mourinho playing in a similar formation. Ibrahimovic is one of the favourites
to land the Capocannoniere title come the end of the season and it shouldn’t come as a surprise if he does just that.
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