AC Milan forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic, may have been drawing on his own experiences with Pep Guardiola when he claimed Erling Haaland that the coach could have a bad effect on his career.
According to the Swede, Haaland’s progress at the Skyblues depends on former his coach Guardiola.
“I like him a lot, he is a very intelligent player, he doesn’t do things that are not within his reach. He does not go down to play the ball, he waits in front of the goal and scores.” Ibrahimovic said.
“He reminds me of former players like (Filippo) Inzaghi, (David) Trezeguet and (Christian) Vieri. In fact, it’s a new version of all three.” Ibrahimovic added.
The 22-year-old striker Haaland has already racked up 22 goals in his first 15 appearances for City under Guardiola in this season.
“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.
At Barcelona, Ibrahimovic and Guardiola worked for one unpleasant season in 2009–10 until the partnership spectacularly fell apart and Ibrahimovic joined AC Milan. He blamed Guardiola for his failure at Camp Nou, claiming that his former boss used to ‘bully’ him.
The 40-year-old striker has been criticising the former Barca and Bayern Munich coach at every opportunity he gets.
“A lot of things have happened from that time until now, so how he works today I don’t know, and I couldn’t care less because he’s not my coach.” Ibrahimovic said.
Ibrahimovic is in the process of recovering from knee surgery in June. The AC Milan striker is expected to return in early 2023. He helped Milan return to the Serie A throne last season. He has insisted that he has no intention of retiring.
