The curtain falls on the Milan championship and the curtain falls on the career of Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
The lights at San Siro go out after Milan-Verona: he enters, the brightest star. The red carpet unrolls to the center of the field, the LEDs of the mobile phones light up to immortalize him (at the start of the game the curve greeted him with a "GodBye"), Ibra high-fives his teammates who act as a corridor towards the center of the field, where Furlani, Scaroni, Maldini and Massara await him.
A Hollywood catwalk, complete with a twist, like in the best films. While some already gave it for sure at Galliani's Monza in 2023/24, Zlatan displaces everyone and announces his farewell to football. "Now is the time to say goodbye to football, not you," he says.
“You have received me with open arms, I will be a Milan supporter for life. The first time I came to Milan you gave me happiness, the second time you gave me love. I want to thank my family, the players, the coach, the management and you fans," he says with tears in his eyes, making even the most Milanist of the Rossoneri, Sandro Tonali, cry. Then he closes, with an Ibra-like "gasconery", addressing the fans: "We'll see you around Milan, if you're lucky."
"I coached a champion, the greatest I've coached, I'm very sad, he was a point of reference for me and the team," Stefano Pioli said of him. «I knew I was dealing with a high-level person and he always says what he thinks, sometimes I spoke little and listened a lot, sometimes we even discussed. But Zlatan has a great personality, there have been important situations, but everything has been very nice. On the field we were all very moved. Will he be a coach? I don't know, what he does he will do well. Because it has too much quality».
At the end a lap of the field to greet the fans, a lap that will remind the nostalgic of what Marco Van Basten did with the famous reindeer jacket. Almost 30 years have passed, the Dutchman was much younger and had physical problems, Zlatan retires at almost 42.
And later, at a press conference, he reveals: «A special day, starting tomorrow I am a man free from this world, it has been a long career and I am proud and happy. I kept this decision to myself until tonight, not even my family knew. When I woke up this morning it was raining, and I thought that even God is sad».
(Unioneonline/L)
