Zlatan Ibrahimovic has shed some light on the on-field issues he seemed to have with Romelu Lukaku when the pair were playing for AC Milan and Inter respectively.
Speaking at the Festival dello Sport (via SempreMilan.it), Ibrahimovic was asked about the arguments that he and Lukaku had in Serie A.
There were a couple of very high-profile moments in derbies where the two strikers squared up to one another and exchanged some heated words, leading to a famous image of the pair pushing their heads into each other.
This was a surprise to many considering they spent a season playing together at Manchester United where there did not seem to be any issues.
As Ibrahimovic explained, he did not expect that sort of attitude from Lukaku but he thinks it is down to the environment created by the Italian media.
“I am sorry, very sorry. I know him, I played a year with him. It wasn’t like that when that situation happened. I didn’t expect that attitude, I know him from Manchester. In Italy they make you into something you’re not, your fault, the journalists. You made him feel like something he’s not, then maybe he feels like the king of Milan and the championship,” Ibrahimovic said.
“But he was doing well, but there I didn’t understand. He does things for his team, but it wasn’t like him. He’s not a bad guy, but this thing happened. Then I said: ‘If we play another game, let’s see what happens’. It’s not personal. I was surprised, what he did is not like him. What I did is.”
“You made him feel like something he’s not, then maybe he feels like the king of Milan and the championship,”
Read: he’s not the king of Milan and he’s not a champion.
They got off lightly… God forbid if the British media had had some influence in the matter!