Will Ibrahimovic stop or not? Milan awaits: the latest

It will be the first knot to be solved for the Italian champion AC Milan. What will Zlatan Ibrahimovic do? Will he sit at the table with the Rossoneri managers to talk about the future? And if so, will it be a football or managerial future? “A matter of days and I’ll tell you”, assured the Swedish champion immediately after the match in Reggio Emilia. It is obvious that a key role will be played by the ownership, because no signature on any contract can be affixed if there is no clarity at the level of the corporate structure. But even before seeing whether the representatives of Elliott or RedBird will trace the perimeter within which Paolo Maldini will move, it’s up to Zlatan to say a word of clarity about his intentions.

Suffering

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The focus is on athleticism. Because if it only depended on Ibra’s desire, there would be very few doubts: he would go on, in order not to risk – his words – “to stop when you still have something to give and then regret it”. The trouble is that the physical structure of the sample has begun to give heavy signs of failure. “I have suffered too much this year”, were the words of him to his teammates, still with the bottle of champagne in his hand. Before, he had cheered them up, taking the floor to thank the group: “Don’t worry, it’s not a greeting speech, I won’t stop”.

Intervention hypothesis

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These are all clues that Zlatan sows, in one way or another, giving the feeling of not having very clear ideas yet. Him first. This season he has only started 14 times out of 27 total appearances in various competitions: very little, compared to his habits. But it is not so much a question of space, it is more a problem of efficiency: on many occasions he has gritted his teeth to make a contribution even in imperfect conditions, plagued by pain and overloads in his battered left knee. He can’t go on like this anymore. The operation is a specter that he himself did not exclude: “We will see”. And if it is true that a surgery at the age of forty would put an end to the career of any mere mortal, in his case, who knows, it could even extend his sporting life. Along the lines of what happened last summer: return to the group postponed after being under the knife, so that it can be called up in the autumn. The rush to return, now that the Scudetto has also arrived in the second Rossoneri ride, is no longer there. Better take some time to look inside, then. And to understand if the superhero armor can somehow be repaired, one last time, to indulge in “the last dance” in style.