Ibra: “Yes, I’ll stop, and I hadn’t told anyone. Not even my family’

Silence, then applause. Ibrahimovic shows up in the press room after consuming tears and also takes leave of journalists: “Yes, I’m leaving football. I hadn’t told anyone, not even the company or my family. Thank you too for your patience, now you will have less work. Perhaps”. And he laughs it. The press room is packed and Ibra speaks clearly. There are reporters from all over the world. England, France, of course Sweden. All for him: “From tomorrow I will be a free man and I will open a new chapter in my life. I had some offers, it’s true, but by then I had already decided to quit.”

Superman

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Ibra-day started with rain. “When I saw the flood I thought ‘well God is sad too’. I looked like a zombie. I wasn’t joking, I wasn’t talking, I was tense, but now I’ve accepted my future”. Milan chapter. A strong emotion: “The first time I arrived here I was happy, then I discovered love. This club made me feel at home from day one. When I returned, I made a promise and kept it. I have never lost the passion. By now this team has become a second family. I arrived at 38, Leao and the others were all between twenty and twenty-five. They were and still are like children. Then, on the pitch, I saw everyone cry: the players, my family, my wife, the fans. I proved that Superman has a big heart, anyone who knows me knows that.”

Raiola

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A joke also about Mino Raiola, his historic agent who died on April 30: “We shared everything. If it had been up to him I would have continued, he would have asked for a few more commissions”. General laughter: “Sorry Mino, but it’s the truth”. Ibra also smiles, who then returns to his farewell: “Panic is when you wake up and you don’t know what to do. Now the adrenaline will be different. I will miss the locker room. It will be another world, but I’m ready. I’ve decided that in the last ten days. I thought about I said ‘enough’. I was sorry not to play today, but that’s okay, I have no regrets. When I was in America I didn’t think I’d go back to playing in Europe, then Mino convinced me to come back for one game, just one, and then he advised me to stop there. And so it was. I will miss the road to Milanello. I’m going to say hello to the team.”

At Ferrari

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The last comment is on the future: “I haven’t thought of going to Monza in the meantime. Now I have to figure out what I’m going to do. Being a coach or sports director is a responsibility. When you are a footballer you have more chances to be yourself, as a coach you are more limited. I can’t get to Ferrari if I’m a coach, or maybe Ibra can. Let’s change the rules, come on. Seriously, I don’t think I’ll leave football in general, but if I enter this world again, I have to start from scratch and grow.” A new Zlatan? Impossible: “It’s not a matter of ego, but the things I’ve done say so. It will be another story, another player. When I started they compared me to Van Basten, but Marco is Marco and Ibra is Ibra”.