Zlatan Ibrahimovic retires from professional football at age 41

Zlatan Ibrahimovic retires from professional football at the age of 41. He had one of the most successful careers of the modern era.

“I’m saying goodbye to football, but not to you,” the Swede footballer told the crowd at San Siro(a Stadium in Milan, Itlay) after the season’s last game on Sunday.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s Career History

Zlatan Ibrahimovic had already told the Italian club that he would be leaving.

He scored 511 goals for teams like Paris St. Germain, Manchester United, and both AC and Inter Milan. He won league titles in four countries.

Ibrahimovic started his second time with AC Milan in early 2020. He won the Scudetto with them in 2011 and helped them win it again last season.

But because of a string of injuries, he only played four times and started one game for the Serie A team this season. He scored one goal, but his contract was set to end this month.

“I feel too many different things right now. “Forza Milan, and farewell,” an emotional Ibrahimovic said as he tried to hold back tears.

“When I came here for the first time, you gave me happiness. When I came back the second time, you gave me love.

“You welcomed me with open arms, you made me feel at home, and I will be a Milanista for the rest of my life.”

Zlatan Careers Stats

In a career that started in the last century, Ibrahimovic won 34 trophies, including 14 league titles, and was nominated 11 times for the Ballon d’Or.

The Champions League was the only major club trophy he didn’t win. His only European title came with Manchester United in 2017 when they won the Europa League.

The striker is also Sweden’s all-time top scorer, with 62 goals in 122 international games.

He quit the national team after Euro 2016, but he came back in 2021 to help them qualify for the World Cup, but they didn’t make it.

“I used to be scared when reporters asked me about my future, but now I can accept it and I’m ready,” he told reporters after his announcement.

“I’ve done this my whole life. Football helped me grow up. It helped me meet people I would have never met otherwise. Thanks to football, I’ve been all over the world. All of this is because of football.”

A career laced with gold

Zlatan Ibrahimovic started his professional career in 1999 with Malmo FF, the team he grew up playing for. In 2001, he moved to Ajax, where he played for three years and won three league titles.

In 2004, he moved to Italy to play for Juventus. There, he won two league titles, but the Calciopoli scandal later took them away from the club.

But with his next team, Inter Milan, he won three more Serie A titles before moving to Barcelona in 2009.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic only played for the Catalan club for one season, where he won the La Liga title. He was then loaned to AC Milan, where he stayed until 2011.

Ibrahimovic was on the move again a year later when he signed with Paris St.-Germain. There, he scored 113 goals in 122 league games and won four Ligue 1 titles.

In July 2016, he signed with the Premier League club Manchester United for two years. During that time, he won the League Cup and the Europa League.

Ibrahimovic joined the MLS team LA Galaxy in 2018. He played there for two seasons before going back to AC Milan.