Rome: Emotions ran high at the San Siro when Zlatan Ibrahimovic, also known as Ibra, announced his retirement after AC Milan's final match of the 2022-2023 season.
Ibrahimovic was born to a Muslim Bosniak father, Šefik Ibrahimović, and a Catholic Croat mother, Jurka Gravić on October 3, 1981 in Sweden.
Ibrahimovic, set to turn 42 in October, decided to depart Milan as his contract drew to a close. Before the kick-off of Sunday's game, the fans in the stands energetically chanted his name and displayed a banner reading "Godbye," a sight that brought Ibra to tears, reports Xinhua.
The Swedish veteran player, whose previous teams include Malmo, Ajax, Juventus, Inter Milan, Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester United and LA Galaxy, began his second spell at Milanello in January 2020, making substantial impacts both on and off the pitch.
However, injuries beset the striker and limited him to just four appearances this season, during which he mostly made cameo appearances and scored only one goal.
Ibra announced his decision during the post-game ceremony, stating:
"It's time to say goodbye to football, but not to you. There are too many emotions for me, Forza Milan and goodbye."
Known as a consistent trophy collector, Ibra amassed more than 30 trophies over his 24-year professional career. He made over 900 appearances at both the national and club levels and scored more than 500 goals.
In his early teens, Ibrahimovic was a regular for his hometown club Malmö FF. At the age of 15, he was close to quitting his football career, in favour of working at the docks in Malmö, but his manager convinced him to continue playing.
As a boy, his hero was Brazilian forward Ronaldo. An avid viewer of Italian football, another player he admired was prolific striker Gabriel Batistuta – a player with similar characteristics to himself.
"I put up photos of Ronaldo in my room. Ronaldo was the man. He was what I wanted to be, a guy who made a difference."
"... Ronaldo was my hero and I studied him online and tried to take in his movements, and I thought I was getting to be an awesome player", Ibrahimovic wrote in his From his autobiography, I Am Zlatan Ibrahimović.
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