Zlatan is the new king of football
IT WAS the summer of 2001. Liverpool were still glowing with the success of completing a Cup treble the previous season and our preparations for a first assault on the Champions League took us to Amsterdam. It was here I first entered the world belonging to Zlatan.
The Amsterdam tournament was a series of prestigious friendlies and one of our games was against Ajax, who had signed a Swedish striker from Malmo.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s reputation was growing around Europe. This was my first chance to see him and I wondered why there was such a fuss. He ended up doing something that night I’d never seen on a pitch before. None of us had.
Stephane Henchoz was the unfortunate one to be on the receiving end. Ibrahimovic rolled his foot over the ball, feinted one way then darted the other and left Stephane utterly bamboozled.
In the dressing room afterwards, we asked Stephane what had happened.
‘I don’t know,’ he said, shaking his head. ‘I honestly don’t know. The ball was there… then it was gone!’
Zlatan, however, had his own inimitable view on the incident.
‘I went left and he went left,’ he explained. ‘Then I went right and he went right. Then I went left again — and he went for a hot dog!’
It was one of those quotes that typified him. Big, bold and memorable. It was an incredible piece of skill and I came away thinking he was a good player. Did I anticipate him becoming a great? No.
That feeling never left me during my playing career. I played against him a few more times in the Champions League, when he was at Juventus in 2005 and Inter Milan in 2008 and there was another moment, at the San Siro, that stood out.
Martin Skrtel had signed for Liverpool two months before that last-16 tie and was keen to make a big impression. We were defending a two-goal lead and Martin, who was my new defensive partner, wanted to make a statement early on and so he crashed into Zlatan with a big tackle.
‘Hey Skrtel,’ Zlatan shouted when he got up. ‘You’ve only just arrived! You’ve not done anything in the game yet!’
You could see his ego and football arrogance shining through. I had no problem with that at all. I’d heard people talking him up as being one of the best in the world but I didn’t think he was as good as he thought he was. If I’m honest, I was underwhelmed by him and sceptical of his reputation.
Bar hitting the post with a thumping shot for Juventus at Anfield in April 2005, Zlatan never did anything to hurt Liverpool.
It certainly wasn’t one of the toughest experiences I had in the Champions League, as there was no real movement from him.
Back then English clubs were superior in Europe to all bar AC Milan and Barcelona. Most of them couldn’t compete with our intensity and it would not have been easy for Ibrahimovic to try and impose himself on us as he did to domestic opponents.
I wouldn’t say I was alone, though, in not being convinced. Martin O’Neill, for one, labelled him ‘the most over-rated player in the world’. We form opinions of foreign players in this country by virtue of what they do in the Champions League or at major tournaments and Zlatan had come up short.
He played in Serie A at the same time as Kaka and Andriy Shevchenko — and won Lo Scudetto five years on the trot — but we raved about the other two rather than Zlatan as AC Milan were the Italian club with the European profile. Juventus are Italy’s biggest and most successful club, but they don’t hold a candle to AC in Europe.
Given he represented Sweden, it was difficult for him to have any impact at the World Cup or European Championships — he scored a brilliant goal at Euro 2004 against Gianluigi Buffon and Italy that sticks in my mind — but the Champions League was different.
He failed in the season he went to Barcelona in 2009. They won the Champions League prior to his arrival and the year after he left (2011); Inter Milan also lifted that trophy without him in 2010 when Diego Milito and Samuel Eto’o were the focal point of Jose Mourinho’s attack.
Perhaps it was only in November 2012 we became fully aware of his talent when he scored four goals against England, which included that remarkable propeller kick from 40 yards — a skill very few would even attempt, never mind execute so perfectly.
Really, he has been special all the way through his career. You don’t plunder the amount of goals he did in France for Paris Saint-Germain aged 34 if you are not special — he outscored Cristiano Ronaldo ( 50- 42) in 2016 — and it’s a shame it has taken us so long to appreciate him.
I look at him now and wish he had been in the Premier League as a 27-year-old in his peak.
He is box office, a 6ft 4in powerhouse with the balance of a No 10. He is a Manchester United player in every sense, with a swagger reminiscent of Eric Cantona. There is a new king in town.
Yet for all that brooding and selfbelief, he has the same insecurities as all footballers and Thierry Henry told me that Zlatan used to ask: ‘What have they said about me?’ when he knew he had been discussed on television.
When United signed him, I knew he would be a good addition but I never foresaw it being for more than 12 months. I never expected he and Wayne Rooney would become a partnership and it is testament to his professionalism that United are already prepared to activate the second year of his contract.
Illness forced him to miss the first leg of the EFL Cup semi-final with Hull in midweek, but his physical condition is remarkable and you only have to look at the goals he scored against Manchester City and Everton earlier in the season to see how agile he is.
Before Christmas, I described Zlatan as being the best signing of 2016. He has won 29 major honours in his career and, the way he is performing, you can see him taking that figure beyond 30 before his time in Manchester is over.
Yet his immediate target is Liverpool. Now when I sit down to watch him I understand what all the fuss is about. Now, unlike in 2001, I’m worried about everything he can do.
“He’s box office at United and has a swagger like Cantona”