Latan Ibrahimovic sat in the stands and watched Milan beat Verona 1-3. Shortly after that game he dropped a bombshell and announced his retirement from football: "I say goodbye to football, it's time to retire."
Ibrahimovic has been injured almost all season and did not get to play in his team's final game, but the 41-year-old striker was very moved by the reception the Milan crowd gave him at this game and shed tears, suggesting that he intends to hang up his shoes and end a remarkable career.
"I have so many memories of this stadium," Ibarra said, "I want to say thank you to my second family. To Milan's players, coach and staff. Would like to thank the fans as well. It is very difficult to retire. I have so many emotions. I will stay to support the team, Forza Milan and goodbye."
Legend. Zlatan bids farewell (Photo by Getty Images, Francesco Scaccianoce)
Zlatan started his career at Malmö's academy in 1991, made it to the first team in 1999 and then moved to Ajax where he began to become a monstrous title builder. After three years in Amsterdam, he moved to the boot country for the first time and signed for Juventus, where success was partial and without titles, and two years later he signed for rivals Inter, where he spent until moving to Barcelona in the summer of 2009 for an unprecedented sum of €69 million.
That season, Inter won the treble, in what was the Swede's first career miss from winning the Champions League, which he had never won. After a volatile season at Camp Nou marked by a conflict with Pep Guardiola, Zlatan moved to AC Milan on loan, and after a season also signed for the Rossoneri for another season in which he took the title. A year later he joined the ambitious project at Paris Saint-Germain, where during his time in the City of Light he temporarily became, until Edinson Cavani overtook him, the club's all-time goal scorer, and since then Kylian Mbappé has also managed to conquer the top. In 2016, he joined Manchester United for free and lifted the Europa League trophy, and two years later signed for Los Angeles Kelsey. In January 2020, he returned to the team he had declared to be his favourite stop of his long career, AC Milan, and returned the championship after a decade to the San Siro.
Ibrahimovic has won the Footballer of the Year award 12 times in Sweden and three more times in Italy. In 2013 he won the Puskas Award for the famous goal against England as the goal of the year in the world.
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