Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has mocked AC Milan superstar Zlatan Ibrahimovic about his old joke saying he has a big ego, which could prevent the best out of striker Erling Haaland.
“He is right, he is completely right. In this club, in this team, my ego is beyond every other person, every player.” Guardiola said.
“I don’t like it when Erling scores three goals, and all the highlight is for him. I am so jealous! Honestly, so jealous!”
“I said ‘Erling, please no more goals, otherwise the newspapers won’t talk about me, and just about me’. He is right, he knows me perfectly. He can write another book.” Guardiola added.
In an interview with Canal Plus, Ibrahimovic said that Guardiola’s ego can prevent Haaland from developing, like what happened to him at Barcelona.
“Is Guardiola able to improve him? That depends on the ego that Guardiola has. If he allows himself to be bigger than Haaland or not. He didn’t allow me or the others to be as big.” Ibrahimovic said.
After succeeding with Ajax, Juventus, Inter, Ibrahimovic joined Barcelona in the exchange of Samuel Eto’o with Inter in the summer of 2009.
However, he only stayed at Camp Nou for a season because he did not fit Guardiola’s play style, before being pushed back to Serie A in Milan shirt on a one-year loan contract.
Since then, Ibrahimovic has repeatedly lashed out at his old manager. The Swede revealed that his relationship with Guardiola deteriorated after the two stopped talking in February 2010.
Ibrahimovic felt he was never trusted at Barca, and was always second only to Lionel Messi. In his autobiography, the 41-year-old striker even described Guardiola as a “coward, weak man”, implying that he was afraid of Lionel Messi.
