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Zlatan to strike deal with Manchester United: Sky

Swedish superstar footballer Zlatan Ibrahimovic is poised to sign a deal to join Manchester United before Sweden’s first Euro 16 match on June 13, Sky Sports has reported, citing anonymous sources.

Zlatan to strike deal with Manchester United: Sky
Zlatan Ibrahimovic at the start of the Swedish team's Euro 2016 training camp . Photo: Janerik Henrikson/TT
According to the British broadcaster, Manchester United’s vice chairman Ed Woodward is in the final stages of tying up the one-year contract, with manager Jose Mourinho determined to make the Malmö-born striker his first signing since joining the club. 
 
Sky Sports tweeted out the news at around 10pm UK time on Friday. 
 
In his most recent interview on Friday evening, Ibrahimovic had also hinted that an announcement was imminent. 
 
“It’s secret. All will soon be revealed,” he told the Swedish Football Association’s new app Blågult Inifrån. 
 
The Sky story, by respected football reporter Andy Burton was given additional credence by a follow-up story in the UK's Guardian newspaper.
 
The Guardian reported that Ibrahimovic's agent Mino Raiola had already reached a deal with Manchester over the striker's salary, leaving only a verbal agreement between Ibrahimovic and Mourinho over his role at the team to clinch the deal. 
 
According to the newspaper, the 1.95m tall player fears becoming a back-up striker as he comes close to the end of his career.
 
Raiola had denied as recently as last week that his client was headed to Old Trafford. 
 
“We have not decided anything yet. I think it will be a surprise in the end. Everyone is harping on about only United, United, United,” he told Expressen newspaper. 
 
Ibrahimovic “will pull a surprise,” Raiola said, adding “it’s not true he’s going to Manchester United.”
 
After Sky Sports broke its story on Friday night, it was downplayed by Tancredi Palmeri, the well-connected Italian football journalist. 
 

Nothing has changed yet on Ibtahimovic-Manchester United situation:
-Mufc offered 1+1 year deal
-Ibra wants conditions that trigger 2nd year

— Tancredi Palmeri (@tancredipalmeri) June 3, 2016

 
Ibrahimovic earlier rejected a reported £26m-a-season deal to play in China, and has also been wooed by Qatar’s Al-Sadd, Los Angeles Galaxy, and his old Italian club, Inter Milan. 
 
But Sky Sports reported that he now wanted to make the British Premier League the final arena for an illustrious career which has already seen him compete in the Dutch Eredivisie, the Italian Serie A, the Spanish La Liga, and, most recently, the French Ligue 1. 
 
British tabloid newspaper The Mirror last week reported that Manchester United had agreed to meet the Swede’s salary demands of £250,000 a week. 
 

IBRAHIMOVIC

Zlatan has been ‘cured’ of coronavirus: AC Milan

AC Milan striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic has been given the all-clear to end his quarantine period and return to action after testing negative for coronavirus, the Serie A club announced on Friday.

Zlatan has been 'cured' of coronavirus: AC Milan
Zlatan Ibrahimovic celebrates after scoring a goal in September. Photo: Miguel Medina/AFP
Milan confirmed in a statement that the Swedish striker had “tested negative” twice in a row, as stipulated in the protocol to be able to lift the quarantine procedure.
   
Ibrahimovic, 39, sounded a more triumphal note on his social media: “You are cured! The health authority says the quarantine is over, you can go out!”, he wrote on Twitter.

The announcement comes a day after Milan said Ibrahimovic had tested positive a second time for Covid-19, putting in doubt his participation in the Milan derby on October 17.
 
   
Ibrahimovic first tested positive on September 24.
   
The derby remains in doubt with two other Milan players and five from Inter currently in self-quarantine.
   
In spite of his absence, Milan have made a decent start to the season, having climbed to second in Serie A after winning all three of their games and reaching the group stages of the Europa League.
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