Zlatan Ibrahimović and Slaven Bilić in the second part of the show (Un)success of the Champion - as openly and honestly as during the first.
The focus of the topic this time was on professional football, the early stages of Ibra's top career, as well as the challenges that shaped him as a player and as a person.
One of the best strikers of his generation spoke about the pressures of big transfers and adjusting to the highest level of European football. The conversation also touched on Zlatan's early challenges at Ajax, his first meeting with Mino Raiola, arriving at Juventus, understanding the competition, leaving Turin after the Moggi affair, and making history with Inter.
When asked about the emotions and strength that the public often sees, Ibrahimović spoke openly about his inner side and the world of professional football:
"Everyone thinks when they see Ibra, strong, big, but inside I have a big heart... I'm very sensitive."
He continued to talk about his vision of football:
"Football is a dirty world. An aggressive and dirty world. The biggest sport in the world. There's so much money in it, everyone has their own interests... Everything is for sale."
Speaking about his own journey, he added:
"I've seen it all and I know how it works. You either eat or be eaten. I had confidence. People said: prima donna, he's arrogant. I had confidence. I learned to believe in myself."
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Pressure from the start at Ajax, I had nothing in the fridge
Recalling his arrival at Ajax at the age of just 20, when Bilić asked him if he was ready, Ibrahimović replied that he was not. He explained that he knew everything at Malmo, and that his parents and friends were close to him. He described the beginnings:
"They bought me for a record amount. The pressure is already there – stress, results… It's a different world. There's no time, no patience, you expect results right away. I had no money for the first month until they paid me my first salary… I have a house, I bought a sofa, a TV and a bed… I open the fridge – there's nothing. I asked the club if I could get paid in advance, they told me that's not how it works… I slept at Maxwell's. He gave me an Ikea mattress on the floor. I lived with him for three weeks… that's how it started…"
Speaking about that period, he emphasized a lesson that, as he says, every player must learn:
"When you come to a new club, your adrenaline is high. You understand who you are when your adrenaline goes down. That's when you see where you are, what you're missing and what you need to do."
Raiola as from the series The Sopranos
One of the key points of the conversation was the first serious contact with football agents and the beginning of cooperation with Mino Raiola:
"I met Min. He had been looking for me before. At first I didn't want an agent. I thought they only had a financial interest and weren't interested in the player... I made the move from Malmo to Ajax without an agent. I had the worst contract at Ajax. When I realized they had screwed me, I said I needed an agent."
Recalling their first meeting, he described the unusual beginning of their collaboration:
"Mino comes like from The Sopranos. Small, with a belly... I came in a Porsche and a Rolex to impress him. He came dressed normally. We go inside, eat sushi... he pulled out the statistics of four players. The first is David Trezeguet - 27 games, 20 goals. Bobo Vieri - 23 games, 20 goals... Inzaghi... All the best strikers in Italy... He pulled out my statistics: Ibra - 27 games, three goals. He says to me: Where can I sell you with these numbers?!"
Ibrahimovic added:
"I told him that if I had numbers like the others, I wouldn't need an agent. My mom could sell me too!"
To this, Raiola admitted that he was right, but added that he needed a miracle. After dinner, on the way home, he said:
"Don't think I'm impressed by your car and watch – that doesn't tell me anything. These numbers tell me everything!"
After that meeting, Ibra called Raiola and said he wanted to work with him. As he said, the famous agent provoked him a little and advised him to take his time, but Ibrahimović insisted that they start working together immediately. He recalls:
"He took my Porsche and drove it to his house, took off my watches. He brought me a Fiat Stilo and said I should drive it and only wear tracksuits... That was fine with me, but the fact that he took my Porsche - that bothered me... Still, I had respect. He told me: Now you will train twice as much as before. What you have done so far is zero. Now you start training... After three months, he sold me to Juventus."
Coming to Juve and the players I watched at games
He described his arrival at Juventus as a moment of unreality:
"I come to the locker room. I see Trezeguet, Cannavaro, Thiram, Del Piero, Buffon, Emerson, Nedved... I said this is not possible. A week earlier in Ajax I was playing PlayStation with these players that I am watching right now and now I am with them. It was like in a movie. Am I dreaming?!"
He emphasized that he felt different then than in Ajax:
"Ibrahimović wasn't a name then. Ibrahimović came later – what he was. I was getting into duels, I was running… I didn't have the same problem as at Ajax. Here I was ready. Mentally."
Speaking about the relationships between the players, he said:
"Competition will always exist. Whoever says no, we're friends... It's competition. One always has a bigger ego than the other."
He specifically addressed the concept of a great player:
"I always ask young footballers: when you come in front of the goalkeeper – do you score a goal or an assist?! If he tells me he scores a goal, that's not the right answer. If he says assist, that's a player... You're bigger when you let someone else score a goal... Players who only score goals – those are small players. A big player is one who assists a goal."
The topic of the Moggi affair and his departure from Juventus raised the question of loyalty in football:
"I said I don't want to stay anymore. I don't want to play Serie B. I want to play the Champions League, Serie A. I'm not a player for Serie B."
Loyalty doesn't exist in football.
When asked about loyalty and whether it even exists in the world of professional football, he was direct:
"No. I could have stayed in Malmo, where my family, city, house, friends are – but I didn't do that… I picked up my bag, went to another city to show who I was and when I felt that I had done my part and that I wanted to grow as a person and as a player – I picked up my bag and moved on."
Coming to Inter had a special meaning for him:
"Inter haven't won the Italian league for 17 years, the Scudetto... If I go there and win, that's a bigger challenge for me... I came to Inter and we won three years in a row. I did something that will be written in history... I played, I won and I left something behind."
He also reflected on the coaches who marked his path:
"Mourinho raised me. The way he prepares games, no one has prepared them. Capello changed my mentality... Koeman gave me a chance to gain confidence. Guardiola is a football maniac - 24 hours a day is football... He had an answer for everything. Ancelotti is a manager. Old school, but he is good at interpersonal relations. It's like he's a father, a friend. Nobody had a problem with him."
Bonus video:
