The return of Ibra: Zlatan between a scudetto run-up, renewal and new records with Milan

Those who live on adrenaline, like Zlatan Ibrahimovic, have the constant need for new challenges and 2022 comes to the rescue: there are other records to beat, other successes to achieve, even some defeats to redeem. To present himself in the best possible way for the new year, Ibra will be at Milanello today: he is expected at the Rossoneri sports center together with his other teammates, at noon at the table for the team lunch, at 1.45 pm in the locker room and at 2.00 pm on the pitch for the resumption of the team. workouts. Zlatan will be there and it is news if you remember how the center forward had closed the first part of the season: an overload on his left knee had kept him out of the away match at Empoli. Ibra has recovered during the holidays in Sweden, which for him are never holidays of total relaxation, and today he will return to training: no favoritism for the old leader of the group, on the contrary, Ibra rather recognizes himself in the role of driver and in this version will return to the field today.

IMPACT

—

In December two years ago, exactly on Friday 27, Ibra started his second AC Milan adventure: he came from Los Angeles Galaxy to offer Milan his experience and his class, intact even if tried by the knee injury suffered at United and poorly trained (it was discussed at the time) in the American championship. Milan needed everything that Ibra could have brought as a dowry: they had closed 2019 with a historical defeat remedied on the Atalanta pitch and were in a crisis of play, of ideas, of identity. To understand Zlatan’s impact it is enough to go back to current events: to Milan at the top of Serie A, with a recognizable philosophy and a continuity of results compromised in part only in the last few weeks.

NEW CHALLENGES

—

It is with his usual spirit that Ibra renews the challenge to 2022: for example, he could become the oldest AC Milan player to win the Scudetto. Four other Rossoneri in history have played their last over forty years: Enrico Albertosi, who however celebrated his last title at 39. Marco Storari who has no scudetti with Milan on the bulletin board. And then Paolo Maldini and Alessandro Costacurta who shared the success of 2003-2004: Paolo was 36, Billy 38. Or it’s time to enter the top ten of the Rossoneri scorers of all time (not only in the league, ranking in which Ibra has already placed): considering all the competitions Zlatan is twelfth at 91, the tenth is Pierino Prati at 102. It would take another eleven goals and would mean improving the performance of the first part of the season: today he is at 7 in 11 appearances, he remains the team’s most prolific scorer, boasting fourteen other different scorers. Ibra climbed to the top of the Rossoneri group also remaining in the pits in ten games, between injuries and the need for turnover. The average goal in Serie A rewards him: today Ibra goes on the net every 100 minutes, exactly the same frequency as last season (there were 15 in 19 appearances) and even the usual one in 2011-2012, when at the end of the championship he established himself on the throne of scorers : 28 in 32 appearances. The previous year, that of the last AC Milan championship, Zlatan closed with 14 goals in 29 games, and an average of one every 181 minutes. In the first six months of his return to Milan (January-June 2020) he returned with 10 centers in 18 races, an average of one every 136 ‘.

SMACCO

—

The coming year will also be useful for him to redeem the “setback” he suffered at home: Ibra says “he never needed the Golden Ball to feel the strongest”, so he certainly won’t be heartbroken for the Swedish one (Guldbollen), which yesterday ended up with Emil Forsberg, the Leipzig midfielder. For the compatriots he was the best player of 2021 and not Ibra, who received recognition on 12 occasions, ten in a row between 2007 and 2016.

THE FUTURE

—

The first commitments of 2022 will serve to further convince Ibra (already quite convinced) of the opportunity to continue and postpone the retreat that scares him so much. A serene confrontation will take place with the club, when the parties believe that the right time has come to sit down at the table: the club knows its impact on the team, both technical and emotional, and if Ibra feels it can move forward (so far it hasn’t sent any signal opposite) it will be taken for granted to arrive at the annual extension, without too many discussions about the figure under the item earnings. There are challenges that go further, Ibra knows this better than anyone else.