Zlatan Ibrahimovic made many enemies during his career because he was hellbent on being his team's main protagonist. That included at Manchester United, where he spent two seasons, winning the Carabao Cup and the Europa League. He was renowned for his egotistic personality but backed it up with stellar performances.
The peak of the 43-year-old's career perhaps came at Paris Saint-Germain, where he thrived at the Parc des Princes. He won four Ligue 1 titles, the French league's Player of the Year award three times, and finished top of the goalscoring ranks on three occasions.
However, Ibrahimovic wasn't always happy at the Parc des Princes because of his desire to be the Parisians' talisman. Edinson Cavani's arrival in 2013 jeopardised the Swede's status as the main goalscorer in the French capital. The Uruguayan frontman is one of four teammates the iconic forward, who retired at the end of last season, didn't get on with during his illustrious career.
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Ibrahimovic's Issues With Cavani Laid Bare
The Swede's ex-LA Galaxy teammate opened up on their frosty relationship
Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Edinson Cavani
Ibrahimovic and Cavani are two of the Parisians' all-time greats who flourished alongside one another despite the Swede's issues with the former Napoli striker. They made 107 appearances together and were collectively involved in 25 goals, winning three Ligue 1 titles.
However, Ibrahimovic's former LA Galaxy teammate, Michael Ciani, shed light on the AC Milan icon's hatred for Cavani and three other teammates during his career. He told RMC Sport in 2020:
If you are close to Cavani, Ibra does not like it. Either you are with Ibra, or you are against him. He told me that everything was fine with Laurent Blanc at PSG. The only person he did not get along with was Cavani. He told me that he only hated three or four people in his career... and one of them was Cavani.
Ibrahimovic left PSG for Manchester United in July 2016 after his contract expired. He was nearly joined at Old Trafford by Cavani as the Uruguayan also switched to the Red Devils just two years after the former 122-cap Sweden international had departed the Premier League giants.
Ibrahimovic Also Had issues with Van der Vaart, Lukaku and Onyewu
Zlatan was hard to please even if you were a teammate
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Although only Cavani was named as one of 'the four', the Uruguayan wasn't the only one of Ibrahimovic's former teammates to incur the fierce Swede's wrath. In 2004, he came up against his former Ajax teammate Rafael van der Vaart in an international friendly between Sweden and the Netherlands.
Several Dutch players hassled Ibrahimovic as he looked to venture into the box, and he lashed out, leaving van der Vaart on the ground in a heap. The former Tottenham attacking midfielder injured his ankle and spent a spell on the sidelines.
Van der Vaart accused Ibrahimovic of intentionally injuring him, but the ex-Sweden captain denied this and warned him that if he blamed him again, he'd break both of his legs and, this time, on purpose.
Romelu Lukaku, who spent a year with Ibrahimovic at Manchester United, was involved in a tense altercation with the forward during a Milan derby in 2021. The Belgian was Zlatan's replacement at Old Trafford before Cavani's arrival.
Ibrahimovic's fiercest bust-up with a teammate was with ex-Milan defender Oguchi Onyewu. The duo wanted to 'tear each other limb to limb'. They fought while in training and got physical, with punches and knees involved. The Swede described it as 'life and death', saying:
"The next time he got the ball in training; I rushed towards him and jumped up with my feet and studs out in front. But he saw me and leapt out of the way. I headbutted him, and we flew at each other. We wanted to tear each other limb from limb. It was brutal. We were rolling around, punching and kneeing each other. We were crazy and furious — it was like life and death.
"I was stopped by my teammates, and I suppose that was a good thing. It could have turned out nasty. All the time, I was thinking: ‘S***, my chest hurts,’ so we had it checked out. I’d broken a rib in the fight. It was not the first time I’d had a dispute with a team-mate."
All stats courtesy of Transfermarkt- correct as of 11/12/2024.
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