By Tomilayo Alapinni
October 9, 2014
Zlatan Ibrahimović could have been one of Arsene Wenger’s greatest signings having been to Highbury (erstwhile Arsenal home ground) for trials as a youngster.
The swede revealed his opinion about the infamous disagreement that saw him pass up the chance to go on trial at Arsenal earlier on in his career when he told reporters that he didn’t like being asked to prove himself.
Zlatan has since played for a number of Europe’s top flight clubs and presently features for Paris Saint-Germain.
After a humiliating row with Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger, he rejected the chance of playing for the Gunners in favour of a deal at Ajax.
The 33 year old who was immortalized in his home country when his name was added into the official Swede dictionary to mean a ‘to dominate’ has told reporters that he knew he was good enough for Arsenal and didn’t need to show it to Arsene Wenger in the form of a trial.
As quoted by reporters, the Sweede said:
‘Today, Wenger says it was a misunderstanding. But I didn’t like being asked to prove myself; I know I’m good enough. I don’t need to show it to you. Ether you know who I am or you don’t. I remember being in Wenger’s office and you could tell he was the boss. It was Wenger! But I don’t think I was so close to signing and I went to Ajax the next day.’
Zlatan further confirmed that a move to the English Premier League was highly unlikely because he is more than happy at the French club.
He further stated that he has so much respect for the premier League being one of the best divisions in European football and that no other league has the level of media interest that the league enjoys.
Ibrahimović who has score 5 times in 5 league appearances for PSG this term has plied his trade across a number of Europe’s top clubs with spells at Barcelona in the Spanish La Liga, Ajax in the Dutch Eredivisie, AC Milan and Juventus in the Italian Serie A and currently Ligue 1 outfit PSG.
For a player who has moved around a lot, his absence in the Premier League and the German Bundesliga is surprising.
However, Arsene Wenger has since dismissed the Swede’s claim as a minor misunderstanding which might be the case as top clubs like Arsenal have hundreds of very talented youngsters who come in for trials every year and an ‘innocent’ error of omission cannot be ruled out.
Although the Frenchman has been known to have missed out on several players who eventually churned out to be very successful, the likes of Petr Cech, Ronaldinho, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Lionel Messi were all ignored in their youth by the Arsenal manager.
The Arsenal boss also recently bemoaned the fact that he missed out on Chelsea’s Didier Drogba when he had the chance, The Ivorian went on to score 12 times in 12 appearances against Arsene Wengers side.
