La Liga - Ibrahimovic: 'Guardiola bullied me'
Zlatan Ibrahimovic has lifted the lid on his extraordinary fall-out with Pep Guardiola, claiming the Barcelona coach "bullied" him and that he responded with a verbal assault in which he accused the Catalan of "having no balls".
In 2009 Ibrahimovic arrived at Barca in a £40 million-plus exchange deal, with Samuel Eto’o going the other way to Internazionale.
The Sweden striker started life at the Camp Nou in fine fashion, scoring seven times in his first seven Liga matches, but his extrovert personality - and the decision to play Lionel Messi in a more central role - resulted in a huge rift with Guardiola.
In his new autobiography, Ibrahimovic accepted some responsibility for the fall-out, but largely blamed Guardiola for ostracising him.
"It was a childhood dream and I was walking on air," Ibrahimovic was quoted as writing in his book by several Swedish newspapers. "It started well but then Messi started to talk.
"He wanted to play in the middle, not on the wing, so the system changed from 4-3-3 to 4-5-1. I was sacrificed and no longer had the freedom on the pitch I need to succeed.
"So I asked for a meeting with Guardiola - for a discussion, not an argument. I said I was being used in the wrong way and that they shouldn’t have bought me if they wanted another type of player.
"I told him what a friend had said to me - 'you bought a Ferrari but drive it like a Fiat'. The chat seemed to go well but then Guardiola started to freeze me out.
"I would walk into a room; he would leave. He would greet everyone by saying hello, but would ignore me.
"I had done a lot to adapt - the Barca players were like schoolboys, following the coach blindly, whereas I was used to asking 'why?' I like guys who run red lights, not pedantic and strict rules. So I tried to be overly nice, didn’t dare lose my temper.
"But after this I stopped trying to adapt. For example, at Barca players were banned from driving their sports cars to training. I thought this was ridiculous - it was no one’s business what car I drive - so in April, before a match with Almeria, I drove my Ferrari Enzo to work. It caused a scene."
Ibrahimovic lost his place to youngster Bojan, currently on loan at Roma, and had all-but accepted he would be on his way out of the club.
He pinpointed the first major row he had with Guardiola, after a 4-1 win against Villarreal during which the former Juventus and Ajax forward only played five minutes.
"(Pep) was staring at me and I lost it. I thought ‘there is my enemy, scratching his bald head’. I yelled to him: ‘You have no balls!’ And probably worse things than that.
"I added: 'You are s****ing yourself because of (then-Internazionale manager Jose Mourinho, whose side beat Barca in the Champions League). You can go to hell!’ I was completely mad.
"I threw a box full of training gear across the room, it crashed to the floor and Pep said nothing, just put stuff back in the box.
"I’m not violent, but if I were Guardiola I would have been frightened."
Ibrahimovic said that, on the advice of his wife, he tried to make peace with Guardiola and fight for his place at the club, despite the purchase of David Villa.
But he claimed that Guardiola was unresponsive, and that the former Spain midfielder would continue to "bully" him, after which a loan move to Milan was arranged.
Ibrahimovic impressed with 14 goals in 28 matches as the Rossoneri won the Serie A title, and has scored seven in nine games in all competitions so far this season.
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I actually beg to differ and think most football managers would rather have ibra as a striker then messi. Mainly due to the fact that messi plays CAM not cf and not as a second striker, he plays the no 10 trquartista role (cheers FM) whereby he requires freedom to do basically whatever he likes, problem was ibra played the same way; reuiring complete freedom to do whatever he pleased. Obviously ibra has a much lower workrate hence playing as a striker and so both could not be accomodated in the team lest the midfield be put under pressure due to none of the attackers tracking back, which contrary to common belief messi doesn't do regularly, only when he loses the ball to prove a point.
Stupid boy.
Homer is dilluded to the maximum isn't he? Are you scared because you have never witnessed a team like the current Barcalona? Put together through hard work and dedication, and not through money like Real or Man City. The Nou Camp is a fortress thats why teams find it hard to win there. The money situation in la liga is wrong, it should be shared evenly, we all know this, and it will change. As for Ibrahimovich, list to how he talks, he will fight for himself, but not the team and thats why he cannot play for Barca, and it's as simple as that.
At the end of the day, I think everyone has at some point bought something that seems great, only to get it home and find out there's nowhere to put it. We'll never fully know what went on behind closed doors at Barca, but their school boy system that Ibra seemed so against seems to be working.
Also i don't think there can be many football managers that would rather have Ibra as a cf than Messi
i was one of the few who complained when ibram (adamma) was swapped for eto'o. i already knew the virus in him. he is still obsessed with playing in barcelona, and still have nightmares about not dorning the barca shirt.
all his antics have shown he is suffering from mental indolence. let your football speak for you and stop looking for cheap popularity like mourinho
i was one of the few who complained when ibram (adamma) was swapped for eto'o. i already knew the virus in him. he is still obsessed with playing in barcelona, and still have nightmares about not dorning the barca shirt.
all his antics have shown he is suffering from mental indolence. let your football speak for you and stop looking for cheap popularity like mourinho
Homer what u write, has nothing to do with the reality! Its just in your idiot head! with your comments, it looks like your id pic is a real foto of u! f ool!
So Homer, are you a Madsheet fan or an Arsenal fan or just a glory-hater? I guess Real were paid by Barca when they lost 5-0. Keep hating and telling your self Barca wins because of the refs. As for Ibraflop, I was a big fan of his. But now he is just a crybaby who blames others for his flop. That article showed me how fkin calm Pep actually is.
It is not just Ibra they bullied. Others like Henry, Márquez etc who they forced out of the club. They also bully visiting teams to the Nou camp and threaten to withdraw the left over TV money (pittance) should they dare put up a fight. Have you noticed how these visiting teams always give up before the match starts? 5-0 seems to be the average scoreline when Barca play at home. #46 Ayoade: this is the real conspiracy my friend - Barca always having her way. For example, if the match is not going to plan, the 12th Barca player sorry the ref will usually (A:) award a non existent penalty to Barca, (B): send off the opposition player or (C): a combination of the two.
One day my friends the truth will come out and Guardiola will be scaked and Messi sold then we will see how average they really are
@ ihuoma, and at any team ibra plays they are guaranteed not to win a Champions League. Those teams that you mentioned did not win the league because of ibra, it's because they were the best teams in the league when he joined them. With Ajax, they were the best team in holand, he moved to juventus when they were the best team in seria a that is why they won plus the scandle that happened, then he move to inter when there were no competition for inter as juve was completly destroyed by the italian officials sending them to the second division and milan were punished with 20 deduction, so it was given that inter was going to win seria a, then he came to Barcelona which were already the best team in the world beating madrid from left to right and he actually did not do much for Barca to help them win La Liga. Only the goal against madrid other than that he was a bench warmer for most of the season.
Any team with Ibrahimovic Wins the league. Ajax, to Juventus, to inter-milan, to Barca, to Ac milan. pls come to Arsenal f.c. we need the league
You know ibra, you are right about saying that if you buy a ferrari don't use it like a fiat, but the problem is that Barca bought fiat in you and they thought that they can use it like a ferrari and it did not work for them. Now when you have a ferrari like Messi why use him like fiat in the wing when they can use him like a ferrari in the center? I don't know you ibra is still complaining, he did not fit the Barca system. He said that he was playing out of position in the wing and not in the center, but look at him with milan he is playing in the center and hardly scored 14 goals last season with them?
IBRAHIMOVIC IS ASHAMED NOW THAT WHEN HE ACTUALLY LEFT BARCA,BARCA WON THE LEAGUE AND CHAMPIONS LEAGUE UEFA SUPER CUP AND SPANISH SUPER CUP AT THE EXPENSE OF HIS CO TRAITOR MOURINHO..,NOW WHO LOST NOW ON BOTH SIDES?,IBRA,..... THEN CAN IBRA REPEAT THE SAME THING HE SAID ABOUT LOOSING CHAMPS LEAGUE TO INTER UNDER MOURIHO TO GUARDIOLA ?NOOOO...OKAY ''BLINDLY FOLLOWING GUARDIOLA,is it YIELDING FRUITS? ABSOLUTELY YES,AND LASTLY,IS GUARDIOLA RIGHT TO SEND OUT THE TRAITOR WITH HIS VIRUS? YES,IF NOT HE WOULD DESTROY GUARDIOLA'S CARREER,WHO LAUGH LAST NOW,GUARDIOLA...AND WHY DID IBRA REFUSE TO STOP TALKING ABOUT EXIT FROM BARCA,EVEN WHEN HE PROVOKED THE COACH BY BREAKING THE RULES APPLIED TO ALL PLAYERS, INSULTS THE COACH BUT THE COACH REMAIN SILENT USING SILENCE AS AN ANSWER TO A ''BIG FOOL''? BECAUSE GUARDIOLA ALSO READ PHSYCOLOGY AND WAS VERY FAST TO DETECT IBRA'S MOTIVE,SENDING HIM TO AN EXIT DOOR.IBRA WAS FURIOUS BECAUSE HIS INTENTION TO DISTRACT THE TEAM WAS RUBISHED AS HE WAS HUMBLED..NOW,IS IBRA A REAL FERRARI COMPARE WITH FREE ROLE WITH A MESSI?...,WELL IBRA SCORED 14 GOALS IN A WHOLE SEASON (LAST SEASON) WHILE MESSI SCORED 53 GOALS SAME LAST SEASON,SO MESSI PRODUCES TIMES 4 OF HIS TOTAL GOALS,HE THOUGHT HE IS WAS A FERRARI BUT WORST THAN A FIAT.i can remember him receiving red cards consecutively by kicking an opponent deliberately LAST SEASON..and he was told to go and cut his hair by owner berlusconi,but he refused.LASTLY,IS IT WRONG FOR BARCA TO BUY HIM?.according to his statement above,HE DREAMT OF PLAYING IN BARCA,SO ALSO BARCA WANTS GOOD AND DISCIPLINED PLAYERS THAT ARE READY TO PLAY FOR THEM,but ibra's thought was cut short when he realised that the players of barca are under strict rules on and of the pitch,THIERY HENRY ADAPTED AND WON ALL 6 CUPS,BUT IBRA COULD NOT,SO HE SINGLE HANDEDLY ''KILLED HIS BARCA DREAM''......what a lesson for others..remember that ibra was not asked all these but he vommited t
I GOT IT,..CONSPIRACY..I Can now authoritatively say that IBRAHIMOVIC IS ONE OF THE TRAITORS THAT LOST BARCA THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE TO INTER,if not,he played the whole 90 mins at san siro but couldnt score,HE OFTEN LOST THE BALL TO OPPONENTS WHICH IS NOT UNCHARASTARISTIC OF A LOYAL BARCA PLAYERS THAT MUST ALWAYS GUIDE THEIR TRAINING WITH THE ''CANTERA'' OR LA MACIA'S CONCEPT.he HURTS THE CLUB THAT PAID HUGELY FOR HIM ''BY DELIBERATELY LOOSING THE BALL,BEARING THE GRUDGE THAT HE WAS NOT USED WHERE HE PREFERED,CONTRARY TO THE LOYALTY PLEDGE HE SIGNED AS A PLAYER ''TO BE USED IN WHATEVER CAPACITY THE CLUB DEEMED FIT''...HOW CAN IBRA INSULT HIS COACH WITH THE LOSS OF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE WITH INTER WHICH IBRA HOLD THE GREATEST BLAME NOT TO SCORE AT CLEAR CUT CHANCE., HE WAS HAPPY WITH THE LOSS BECAUSE SOMEONE WHO IS A MASTER AND BOSS OF MIND GAMES; MOURINHO HAD BOUGHT IBRA'S LOYALTY,,,AND FOR IBRA TO HAVE RELEASE THE CAT(conpiracy) OUT OF the BAG TO THE FACE OF GUARDIOLA THERE WAS NO DOUBT ABOUT THE CONSPIRACY..because in the group stages when barca beat inter 2-0 in nou camp,ibra did not play..also the 4-1 dubbing of Arsenal which messi scores 4 goals,ibra was benched.BOJAN WHO CAME ON AS LATE SUBSTITUTE TO IBRA MADE AN OBVIOUS IMPACT WHEN HE SCORED THE SECOND GOAL NEEDED TO KNOCK INTER OUT BY BARCA BUT WAS LATER DISALLOWED.MOURINHO USED IBRA,AND THE REFFEREE,OF INTER BARCA GAME;Oleguera Buecerenca,a portuguesse like mourinho (and a friend to mourinho,you can seach this particular reff activities by includng mourinho in your ''SEACH'' and you will be surprised that the portuguese reff alledgedly shared a business with mourinho), SAME REFF CONTROVERSIALLY RULED OUT A CLEAR GOAL BY BENFICA TO ALLOW porto QUALIFY FOR CHAMPIONS LEAGUE IN 2003/04 AND LATER WON THE CHAMPIONS LG OF '04.SAME YEAR 5 REFFS WERE DISMISSED IN the LEAGUE AND A CHAMPIONS LG WON by PORTO '04 IN portugal is BRANDED WITH ''TH
Are barca players school boys?
If Zlatan were to top player that he holds himself for then he should find the net from ANY position or in ANY system.
Ok high and mighty "Ibra" here is the real reason U were kicked out of Barca.... U never deserved to be in the team.... To flourish as a Barca player U need to be part of the team... Barca is all about team work and world class players far above capabilities you can even imagine like Messi, Iniesta, Villa and now Fabregas are expected to get back and defend, chase the ball, fight as a team... That has been the key to Barca success... All U did in your time a Barca was look to receive a pinpoint pass which would give U an easy finish... U have not scored a single world class goal for Barca and U demanded to be given priority over Messi who has scored over 200 (at least 100 of those can be classified as World class).... Please "Ibra" do yourself a favour and dont insult your own intelligence by publishing this nonsense.
"if you bought a Ferrari you shouldn't drive it like a Fiat".
You're right Ibra, you shouldn't drive a Ferrari like a Fiat. But the problem is, You ARE NOT A FERRARI.
He should never have been bought by Barcelona and I think he's got a point when he says he was misused on the pitch. But then his sentence about Guardiola being afraid of Mourinho is so funny, because it's totally flawed! Let's see in three weeks' time if he can respond to Guardiola and Barcelona on the pitch.
Ibra my friend,
If I was a manager, I would never sign you for all that I care for. You have this thing in you that when you see bigger teams you put your tail between your legs. Do you remember playing for Inter when they visited Anfield to play Liverpool and you guys were given a sound beating? You were the central striker and there was nothing oozzing from you back in reply.
You seem to score exceptionally good and beautiful goals but my problem is how come these goals come at the expense of small teams or let me put it this way, weaker defenders?
Do you know that the only country you get press attention is in Sweden and nothing more. It is so funny that when you even score one goal out of many, the press label you as the one who scored all the goals for Milan. I am beginning to suspect that that must have given you a false sense of being the best that there is. Actually, about 80% of Swedes who really appreciate good football knows that you are not up to scratch.
Ibra, until you do something special on the same levels with Messi, CR7 and Rooney, then we can start listening to you. Until then, give us some peace!
Ha det gott
A football fan
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