Ibrahimovic: “My children are better than me. When 50 thousand shouted at me as a gypsy”

“This is me”. “This is me.” The Canale 5 program hosted by Silvia Toffanin and produced by Maria De Filippi has a clear name: whoever goes as a guest tells his story. In the first episode of the second season, Zlatan Ibrahimovic was in the studio with Laura Pausini, a very Milan fan. Ibra spoke about himself, his family, his world. These are the most significant sentences.

the children

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“It’s not easy for them, but they have a bit of this mentality whereby they are stronger than me, already. It may help, for my ego I say it’s impossible, but the important thing is that they are well. They live a different life from the others, because their father was a strong player, if not the strongest. But I’m trying to divide the professional Ibra from his father. Life is easier, simpler, because they can do more than what I did. What I teach them is discipline, respect and independence. If they succeed in this, it means I did dad’s job well.” Maximilian and Vincent, 19 and 17 years old, play for Milan Futuro and the Rossoneri youth teams, followed very closely by their father. They started playing as Seger, their mother’s surname, then chose to switch to Ibrahimovic.

the love for Milan

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“I will be a Milan fan forever, because I will never forget what Milan gave me. They gave me happiness and the second time, when I came back, love. I played with players 20 years younger than me. The farewell was a very special day because the day before they explained the program to me, but I said ‘I don’t want to know anything, spontaneous emotions must come out of me’. It wasn’t easy.” It was June and San Siro applauded the retiring champion for a long time. Zlatan cried.

“gypsy” in Rome

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Ibra returns to one of the most difficult days of his career, October 31, 2021, when during Roma-Milan the Olimpico offended him with racist insults. “I remember that day, 50,000 of them shouted ‘You’re a gypsy’ after the goal. I pretended not to hear because I wanted even more, because that’s how they charged me. When I was on the pitch and I got hate, I did even more, because I needed stimulation. Then when the crowd started doing it I thought ‘stronger, stronger, stronger’. Then the referee warned me, which I don’t understand.”

his story

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A few words, as always, on his difficult past: “I worked, I made sacrifices, I went against everyone. I had to be stronger than the others to be seen and have the opportunity to arrive. Today I can say that I have opened the doors to second generations in Sweden”.

current life

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Ibrahimovic today is RedBird’s Senior Advisor, he is Gerry Cardinale’s man in the Milan project. “I miss the adrenaline on the pitch, but after you accept you try to find more adrenaline, even if it will never be the same. Before deciding to stop I was afraid, because I’ve played football all my life, then I reached a certain point where I accepted it. Now I’ve learned that to get there you have to work: nothing is free in life, and if you work, things come. If you know me, you know that I have a really big heart, and it’s difficult to get into it.”