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‘It’s the moment to say goodbye’: Zlatan Ibrahimovic retires from football

Swedish footballer Zlatan Ibrahimovic unexpectedly announced his retirement during an on-pitch ceremony, bringing the curtain down on a long and trophy-packed career.

Published: 5 June 2023 04:12 CEST
'It's the moment to say goodbye': Zlatan Ibrahimovic retires from football
AC Milan's Zlatan Ibrahimovic is now set to retire after his last game for the club. Photo: AP Photo/Antonio Calanni

Veteran striker Ibrahimovic revealed his decision to quit the game following AC Milan’s 3-1 win over Verona which ended their Serie A campaign.

“It’s the moment to say goodbye to football, but not to you,” said Ibrahimovic on the San Siro pitch.

“There are too many emotions for me right now. Forza Milan and goodbye.”

The 41-year-old had been expected to simply bid farewell to Milan fans after his departure from the seven-time European champions was announced on Saturday.

He returned to Milan in late 2019 for a second spell after a previous two-year period in which he won the Serie A title in 2011.

“The first time I came here you gave me happiness, the second time you gave me love,” said Ibrahimovic.

“You welcomed me with open arms, you made me feel at home, I will be a Milanista for the rest of my life.”

Ibrahimovic was a key figure in Milan’s resurgence to the top of Italian football after his return to the club, helping to bring them back from the doldrums and eventually win the Scudetto last season.

“I used to be scared when journalists asked by about my future, but now I can accept it, I’m ready,” Ibrahimovic told reporters after his announcement.

“I’ve been doing this all my life, football made me a man. It allowed me to know people I otherwise would never have known, I’ve travelled the world thanks to football. It’s all thanks to football.”

Over the course of his career Ibrahimovic won league titles in the Netherlands, Italy, Spain and France, although his only major European trophy was the 2017 Europa League with Manchester United.

Making his announcement at the San Siro was appropriate as he also won three straight league titles with Inter Milan between 2006 and 2009 before a turbulent spell at Barcelona.

His retirement comes after a season in which he has hardly featured for Stefano Pioli’s side after being plagued with injuries, returning in February following surgery on his left knee in May.

In July he signed a deal which netted him around one million euros ($1.02 million) in fixed salary, with large bonuses linked to appearances and achievements.

But after agreeing that deal the 41-year-old only started one match and netted once for Milan, a 3-1 win at Udinese in March in which he became the oldest goal scorer in Serie A history.

He then picked up a calf injury in a pre-match warm up in April and ended his career sidelined, scotching rumours that he was set to move to Monza and targeting Euro 2024 with Sweden.

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SPORT

EXPLAINED: Why is Swedish cricket facing a scandal?

As recently as 2015, cricket was welcomed into the Swedish Sports Confederation (RF) as the fastest growing sport in the country. Now, nine years later, the sport has lost state funding and is risking expulsion from the confederation. What happened?

Published: 4 April 2024 14:16 CEST
EXPLAINED: Why is Swedish cricket facing a scandal?

In May last year, RF withdrew the Swedish Cricket Association’s funding due to problems with the association’s democracy.

One of the chief issues, according to RF, is that the cricket association has regularly held extra yearly meetings, with different factions within Swedish cricket using these as an opportunity to express their lack of confidence in the association’s board, regularly dismissing and reappointing different board members.

“Something was not right,” Björn Eriksson, RF chairman between 2015 and 2023, told SVT in its new mini documentary on Swedish cricket.

So, what happened?

In April 2019, the association held an annual general meeting (AGM), where the current chairman, Tariq Suwak, was elected. A few months later in December, this board was dismissed at an extraordinary general meeting.

Between 2021 and 2022, two AGMs and four extraordinary general meetings were held, with some members of the board replaced in 2021 and again in 2022, where Suwak was again appointed chairman.

In spring last year, RF withdrew state funding after an external investigation by Ernst and Young determined that the association’s leadership lacked the ability to lead, was incapable of carrying out long-term structural work to improve the association, lacked transparency and did not have the same level of democracy as other sport associations in Sweden.

“We believe that the association’s management and much of the rest of its activities are permeated by a poor understanding of how associational democracy should work,” the report stated. “Amendments to the statutes and extraordinary annual general meetings are used as a weapon to counteract people with dissenting views.”

“What they say in the report, it’s the truth,” cricket association chairman Tariq Suwak told SVT. “It’s a fair description of Swedish cricket”.

The report also stated that there was a lack of dialogue between association members and its board, which Suwak agrees with.

“I’ve felt the same way, as have many others… that there’s a lack of dialogue with the board. An extraordinary general meeting has felt like the only forum for asking questions and communicating with those who make the decisions,” he told SVT.

In a statement on its website, RF explained its decision to withdraw funding as “based on serious deviations from the values of sport and deviations from the member association’s obligations regarding auditors and auditing according to RF statutes”.

According to SVT’s documentary, the issue appears to be that certain groups have tried to adapt Swedish cricket to the benefit of their own club, for example by getting involved in deciding which teams will play each other, which teams will have the most home games, or even choosing the players for the national team.

Later that year, the club went through a financial crisis, ending the contracts of everyone in its headquarters. It was issued a list of necessary measures which need to be taken in order for it to requalify for economic support and remain a member of RF, including hosting courses in association democracy and tightening up the association’s statutes in order to “reduce the risk of non-democratic elements at annual meetings”.

What happens now?

In December last year, RF granted the cricket association a loan of 750,000 kronor “after the association could show that it has begun measures in accordance with the action plan which are going in a positive direction”.

“There are still major shortcomings, but we see a greater understanding from the association of what needs to be done, and a plan for carrying out that work,” SF vice chairman Toralf Nilsson said at the time.

“This gives us hope that they will be able to solve their challenges and create methods to work with democratic governance, prioritising knowledge of associations and work with where work to build knowledge of running an association as well as work on basic values must be prioritised.

The loan must be paid back by August 2024.

Do you know more about this? Get in touch with us at [email protected]. You can watch SVT Sport’s investigation into this topic here.

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