Zlatan Ibrahimovic announces his resignation after the last Milan game | Tearful farewell to professional football

A really big player leaves the football stage. After the season finale of his club AC Milan, Zlatan Ibrahimovic announced the end of his career at San Siro. The superstar from Sweden cried.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s departure from AC Milan this summer also means the end of his illustrious career. Following his team’s 3-1 home win against Hellas Verona, the 41-year-old declared his time as an active footballer over in an emotional speech to the fans at San Siro. “I’m saying goodbye to football,” said the Swedish football legend to the Tifosi in the stadium in tears. The time had come to say “goodbye”. Many teammates on the pitch and countless fans in the stands cried too. In his short speech he also said: “I will remain a Milanista for the rest of my life.”

On Saturday evening, Milan announced that Ibrahimovic would leave the club at the end of the season. His contract with the Serie A club expires. Recently there have been rumors of the striker moving to Italian rivals AC Monza, which have now died down. Due to various injuries, Ibrahimovic has only appeared in four league games this season, including three as a substitute, and scored just one goal. After a long absence due to a knee operation last year, the veteran struggled first with a thigh injury and most recently with a calf injury. So Ibrahimovic was not in the Milan squad on Sunday evening.

Fans move Ibrahimovic to tears

Ibrahimovic can look back on a long and successful career: the 122-time national player (62 goals) played for top clubs such as Inter Milan, FC Barcelona, ​​Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester United. Among other things, he won the Italian championship five times and the league title in France four times. In 2017, Ibrahimovic was crowned Europa League winner with Man United. However, he did not win the prestigious Champions League title during his career. The legend’s goal statistics are impressive: he scored 493 goals in a total of 819 career games for his teams.

For Milan (163 appearances), the Swede played the most compulsory games after PSG (180) – and the fans celebrated him accordingly: Before the game on Sunday, they showed a choreography with the words “Godbye” – a play on words for Goodbye. In addition, the 41-year-old was received with “Ibrahimovic, Ibrahimovic” chants. The cult player reacted visibly moved and thanked the fans by making a heart with his hands in their direction.