It would have been easy to have suggested that when Manchester United signed a then 34 year old Zlatan Ibrahimovic on a one year £200,000 a week contract that the English club had panicked and simply brought in a player that had seen his best days. But Ibrahimovic is proving in his debut season with the Red Devils the doubters wrong.
The Swede who has had an illustrious career started pre season with a bang and continued that form for the first month of the new season, before an inevitable dip. But the confident No.9, has sprung into action once again and his form his arguably on a par with his time at PSG where he scored 156 goals in just 180 appearances.
At United Zlatan currently has an impressive return of 19 goals from 30 games in all competitions and 14 goals from 21 Premier league matches. He is just 1 goal behind Chelsea’s Diego Costa and Arsenal’s Alexis Sanchez, this is evidently good going from a 35 year old.
The deadly Swede as he is known has always proven himself at clubs such as Inter Milan, Juventus, Milan and PSG- and with Zlatan comes the bonus of trophies- his teams always win trophies. Initially signed on a one year deal it seems almost certain that United will retain the player for another year especially if Jose Mourinho can guide United to a Champions League finish. It was first thought that United who got Ibrahimovic as a free agent from PSG would use the players services just for 12 months so he could pass down his experience to the younger players such as up and coming Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial who was also bought from Ligue 1 when he came from Monaco. But now it seems Zlatan will be used for much more than that, to fire United to glory in one shape or another.
After scoring the all important equaliser over rivals Liverpool a few weeks ago Zlatan will not only have his eye on trying to win silverware for United but also to become top goal scorer in England which will add to his achievements in Serie A and Ligue 1. And he has just been named Premier league player of the month- so the road ahead seems like a bright one for the outspoken striker.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic all time stats:
Malmo 1999-2001 – Played 47 Goals 18
Ajax 2001-2005 – Played 110 Goals 48
Juventus 2005-2006 Played 92 Goals 26
Inter Milan 2006-2009 Played 117 Goals 66
Barcelona 2009-2011 Played 46 Goals 22
AC Milan 2011- 2012 Played 85 Goals 56
PSG 2012-2016 Played 180 Goals 156
Man Utd 2016- Present Played 30 Goals 19
Total: Played 707 Goals 411
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