ZLATAN PUTS HIS 33 CUPS ABOVE TOP EURO PRIZE
ZLATAN IBRAHIMOVIC aims to put the seal on a glittering career by finally winning the Champions League with Manchester United.
But the veteran striker insists he would not swap the 33 other trophies he has won over the last two decades to land Europe’s top club prize.
Ibrahimovic, 36, launched his 16th attempt to win the Champions League with his seventh different club when he came on as a substitute during United’s shock 1-0 defeat in Basel on Wednesday night.
Despite the loss, United will qualify for the knockout stages as group winners if they collect the point they need in their final game against CSKA Moscow at Old Trafford on December 5.
Then Ibrahimovic, whose CV includes spells with Ajax, Juventus, Inter Milan, Barcelona, AC Milan and Paris St-Germain, will be hoping for better luck in the competition in the second half of the season.
He said: “Of course, winning the Champions League would be massive, huge.
“It is one of the targets, every season. But looking at the whole picture, I wouldn’t change one Champions League for my other 33 trophies – no way.
“The way I see it is in the long term, what you achieved in the long term.
“I see many players who have won one Champions League and then nothing.
“Then you can say it in a different way – he won it because of luck, or because the team was good, but I have been winning trophies every year.”
Ibrahimovic has gone out at the quarter-final stage eight times and the last-16 on four occasions. The furthest he ® has ever gone was the semi-final in 2010, when his Barcelona side came a cropper against Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan. But there has been plenty to celebrate for the Swede down the years. He has won some form of silverware in every season since he left his first club Malmo 16 years ago – including the EFL Cup (below) and Europa League at United. He added: “Wherever I’ve gone, I have won. I didn’t win the Champions League, something everybody knows, but I’m doing everything to win it. “And if I could, I would be on top of the world. “But in my career, I won everything else. I see many players who have won the World Cup and they didn’t even put their foot on the field, yet they still say they have won the World Cup! “I have 33 trophies. I won in Holland. I won in Italy. I won in France. I won in Spain. I won in England. “I won in five different countries, so my career is full of achievements. “I don’t know who to compare it to. Someone like Steven Gerrard, with all respect. “He won the Champions League but never the Premier League. “If you ask him what he would rather win, I think he would say the Premier League. “So for me it’s about what you achieved in the long term. For me the aim is to win every year. “It’s not an excuse that I don’t want to win the Champions League. Of course I want to win it. We all want to win it.”