Zlatan Ibrahimovic has significantly played down the quality of the Premier League, labelling it a “little bit overrated.”
Ibrahimovic, 37, has enjoyed a cosmopolitan career, plying his trade across eight leagues in Europe and North America, including some of the biggest names in world football.
The Swedish marksman has turned out for the likes of Barcelona, Inter Milan, Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain, winning league titles in France, Spain, Holland and Italy respectively, but he only joined Manchester United during the twilight years of his career.
Despite this, the talented striker marked his maiden campaign by lifting the League Cup and Europa League as well as scoring 17 league goals, something people warned he would not be able to achieve in his mid-30s.
“I’d had a long career before I came – different kinds of countries, different kinds of clubs,” he told FourFourTwo.
“People said, ‘You don’t need to go to England, because if you fail in England, people will always say you weren’t good enough’. Everybody was against it. And guess what? That made me motivated. That gave me adrenaline.
“I liked the Premier League. I found it very motivating and very exciting. It gets a lot of attention, although I feel the quality is a little bit overrated – the individual quality, the technical part. But the rhythm is high. Even if you are the best, if you can’t handle the rhythm, the pace, then you will not succeed, because the pace is very high.”
Ibrahimovic would ultimately see his Red Devils’ career end prematurely as knee ligament hampered his form and fitness; last season he managed just one goal in seven appearances before he signed for LA Galaxy in March.
However, the veteran forward believes Premier League defenders would have struggled to contain him had he joined the division earlier in his career rather than while he was winding down.
He added: “I’m super proud and super happy that I went to United – it was the right club. We won, and I did what I did before I got injured.
“I had an excellent time – great memories. I’m attached to United forever. The supporters are amazing: wherever I went, I saw red shirts, which was fantastic. It’s a very important moment in my career
“As I said when I was in England, you’re lucky I didn’t come 10 years ago, because if I did what I did at 35 years old, imagine it if I was 25. Then it would have been a different story. I came there and they said I came in a wheelchair. All the people that talked, in the whole Premier League, I put them in a wheelchair. That’s what I did.”
Ibrahimovic’s former club take on another one of his former employers in the Champions League on Wednesday as Man Utd clash with Juventus un Turin.
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