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FOOTBALL

‘Full truth’ in Zlatan’s autobiography

Sweden’s arguably biggest football star of all times, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, is releasing a biography of his journey from a troubled Swedish suburb, to the very top of world football.

'Full truth' in Zlatan's autobiography
Photo: Albert Bonnier förlag; Luca Bruno/Scanpix (file)

The perhaps hottest topic of the book is Ibrahimovic’s disputed crisis during the time he played for coach Pep Guardiola in world champion team Barcelona.

“I yelled at him ‘You have no balls!’ and probably worse things than that,” Ibrahimovic wrote, according to the Aftonbladet newspaper.

“And I added ‘You shit your pants for Mourinho. You can go to hell!’ I was completely insane.”

Ibrahimovic left his Italian club Inter for Spain’s Barcelona in 2009, but the €69 million ($95 million) transfer would soon prove to be all but a perfect deal.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic and his new coach, Pep Guardiola, often had serious disputes.

After a Champion’s League match agains Villareal, Ibrahimovic confronted his coach after only being allowed five minutes on the field.

And that’s when Zlatan “went insane.”

“If I were Guardiola, I’d have been scared,” Zlatan wrote in the biography, according to Expressen newspaper.

He also admitted thinking about ending his career during his time with world champions Barcelona, where at one point he wasn’t even on speaking terms with his coach.

But the book gives more than that, according to the summary on the publisher’s web page.

According to Zlatan’s publishers, the Albert Bonnier Publishing house, “I am Zlatan” (Jag är Zlatan) will give the “full truth” about Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

Not only outlining his upbringing in the troubled district of Rosengård in Malmö, the book will give insights into his years as an extremely successful football player in some of the best club teams in the world.

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RACISM

VIDEO: Spain’s La Liga reviews video of boy racially abusing Vinicius

Spain's La Liga on Monday said it was reviewing a video of a child making racist insults towards Real Madrid forward Vinicius Junior during the 2-2 draw with Valencia at the weekend.

VIDEO: Spain's La Liga reviews video of boy racially abusing Vinicius

“We’re in the process of studying and analysing the facts from a legal standpoint to see what we can and should do,” La Liga sources said.

In a video published by a journalist for ESPN Brasil, and picked up by Spanish media, a boy sitting in a woman’s lap can be heard calling Vinicius a “monkey”.

The Brazilian scored twice for Madrid as his team recovered from two goals down at Mestalla on Saturday.

Vinicius raised his fist in a “Black Power” salute after the first of his two goals at a ground where he was racially abused last season. Valencia subsequently banned three people from the stadium for life.

The 23-year-old has become a symbol of the fight against discrimination in Spanish football after suffering racist abuse on many occasions, and he was jeered repeatedly by home supporters on Saturday.

Jude Bellingham was sent off after the final whistle against Valencia for protesting after the referee blew the final whistle right before the England midfielder headed home what he thought was the winning goal.

READ ALSO: Football star Vinicius highlights racist behaviour from Spanish fans

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