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Zlatan is the only one: Mourinho

Manchester United striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic has performed so well that he has made himself virtually undroppable this season according to manager José Mourinho.

Published: 16 December 2016 15:49 CET

Zlatan is the only one: Mourinho

Zlatan Ibrahimovic and José Mourinho. Photo: AP Photo/Tim Ireland

The 35-year-old former Swedish international has found the net 14 times in all competitions for United this season after he joined from French champions Paris Saint-Germain on a free transfer.

Ibrahimovic has also played in more matches than any of United's other strikers this season, featuring in 24 of their 26 games so far, and will start up front in the Premier League clash with in-form West Bromwich Albion on Saturday.

“Is it almost impossible to leave him out? Yes, it is,” said Mourinho at the eve of match press conference on Friday. “As a striker he is in one of the impossible positions where you cannot hide.”

“He is phenomenal and plays again tomorrow and then one week to rest.”

“I am not surprised at all. I knew from the physical point of view he could resist but obviously he cannot play 60 matches.”

Mourinho, who enjoyed a good relationship with Ibrahimovic at Inter Milan when he was in charge there, said he would need to rest him but he was such an integral part of the side it was hard to omit him.

“I must give him a rest. I must leave him out a game,” said Mourinho.

“He was suspended against Arsenal. So that game he did not play.”

“In some matches in the Europa League he was on the bench, also against Northampton (in the EFL Cup).”

“So now and again I will find a way to give him a rest.”

“But as our target striker we can see he is the only one. And the way we normally play we need him.”

Mourinho said Ibrahimovic is also a great example to United's youngsters with the manner in which he conducts himself in matches and on the training ground.

“He is a great example in every aspect, he is very professional,” said the 53-year-old Portuguese.

“Great also with his family life and on keeping his family life the most positive and private.”

“He is a great example in everything and when you have him and Michael Carrick at 35 the kids could not have better examples.”

FC Barcelona's Spanish midfielder Alexia Putellas poses after being awarded thewomen's Ballon d'Or award.

FC Barcelona's Spanish midfielder Alexia Putellas poses after being awarded thewomen's Ballon d'Or award. Photo: FRANCK FIFE / AFP

Putellas is the third winner of the prize, following in the footsteps of Ada Hegerberg, who won the inaugural women’s Ballon d’Or in 2018, and United States World Cup star Megan Rapinoe, winner in 2019.

Putellas captained Barcelona to victory in this year’s Champions League, scoring a penalty in the final as her side hammered Chelsea 4-0 in Gothenburg.

She also won a Spanish league and cup double with Barca, the club she joined as a teenager in 2012, and helped her country qualify for the upcoming Women’s Euro in England.

Her Barcelona and Spain teammate Jennifer Hermoso finished second in the voting, with Sam Kerr of Chelsea and Australia coming in third.

It completes an awards double for Putellas, who in August was named player of the year by European football’s governing body UEFA.

But it’s also a huge win for Spain as it’s the first time in 61 years that a Spanish footballer – male or female – is crowned the world’s best footballer of the year, and only the second time in history a Spaniard wins the Ballon d’Or.

Former Spanish midfielder Luis Suárez (not the ex Liverpool and Barça player now at Atlético) was the only Spanish-born footballer to win the award in 1960 while at Inter Milan. Argentinian-born Alfredo Di Stefano, the Real Madrid star who took up Spanish citizenship, also won it in 1959.

Who is Alexia Putellas?

Alexia Putellas grew up dreaming of playing for Barcelona and after clinching the treble of league, cup and Champions League last season, her status as a women’s footballing icon was underlined as she claimed the Ballon d’Or on Monday.

Unlike the men’s side, Barca’s women swept the board last term with the 27-year-old, who wears “Alexia” on the back of her shirt, at the forefront, months before Lionel Messi’s emotional departure.

Attacker Putellas, who turns 28 in February, spent her childhood less than an hour’s car journey from the Camp Nou and she made her first trip to the ground from her hometown of Mollet del Valles, for the Barcelona derby on January 6, 2000.

Barcelona's Spanish midfielder Alexia Putellas (R) vies with VfL Wolfsburg's German defender Kathrin Hendrich — Putellas plays as a striker for Barça and Spain. GABRIEL BOUYS / POOL / AFP

Exactly 21 years later she became the first woman in the modern era to score in the stadium, against Espanyol. Her name was engraved in the club’s history from that day forward, but her story started much earlier.

She started playing the sport in school, against boys.

“My mum had enough of me coming home with bruises on my legs, so she signed me up at a club so that I stopped playing during break-time,” Putellas said last year.

So, with her parent’s insistence, she joined Sabadell before being signed by Barca’s academy.

“That’s where things got serious… But you couldn’t envisage, with all one’s power, to make a living from football,” she said.

After less than a year with “her” outfit, she moved across town to Espanyol and made her first-team debut in 2010 before losing to Barca in the final of the Copa de la Reina.

She then headed south for a season at Valencia-based club Levante before returning “home” in July 2012, signing for Barcelona just two months after her father’s death.

In her first term there she helped Barca win the league and cup double, winning the award for player of the match in the final of the latter competition.

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