Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s first full season as the Senior Advisor to AC Milan and to RedBird Capital has been a bumpy road, to say the least.
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As La Gazzetta dello Sport recall, the last time Ibrahimovic spoke publicly was a few days ago, on the eve of the Coppa Italia final. He cracked quick joke about Jannik Sinner’s Rossoneri heart and claimed the team were ‘ready and prepared’ for the game.
We have to go back over a month and a half before that to find his last interview. It was March 30, before the Napoli-Milan match, when he explained that he had disappeared from circulation – disappeared for about 20 days, even from social media – was ‘due to a virus’.
“I even lost three kilos. I’m here to help everyone, on and off the pitch. Like before, now and in the future,” he said. The Swede then denied the alleged friction with the CEO Giorgio Furlani: “All falsehoods.”
Zlatan has vanished from the public eye a bit, which is unusual for him. On X the last sign of life is from February 25, on Instagram there are some recent traces linked to his entrepreneurial activity.
The two platforms add up the monstrosity of 72.5m followers who, for some time now, have been wondering about him. Or rather, about his future: what is happening? And what will happen?
The Ibrahimovic enigma
Meanwhile, unlike other occasions, Ibrahimovic should be given credit for a certain wisdom in communication. When the storm whistles loudly and it rains heavily, it is advisable to stay under cover.
There was a moment, even quite a long one, in which Zlatan was practically the frontman of the club. In front of the microphones he almost always appeared, but this year the media exposure has reduced, to the point of almost completely disappearing in the second part of the season.
And so we return to the previous question: what will become of him? Meanwhile, it is always useful to remember that we are not talking about a Milan-specific employee like Geoffrey Moncada, but a consultant.
The former striker is an advisor to the top management and advisor to the ownership, of which he is on the payroll. Gerry Cardinale is an entrepreneur accustomed to evaluating his managers based on the objectives achieved or not. In football, therefore, at the end of the season.
And obviously Zlatan, like the rest of the management, has not brought the club the objectives set. In the eyes of the number one of RedBird, the Swede remains a great commercial and image driver because Ibrahimovic is not only a super consultant, but an entire brand.
However, it is equally evident that in the offices of Casa Milan it is necessary to remodel the balance, to strengthen the structure, of course, but also make absolute clarity on roles, skills and relationships between the various figures.
What could change?
In the meantime, the fans have dumped him too. In the face of a season like this, obviously no one is safe. In fact, Ibrahimovic had already received his first boos in mid-December, at San Siro during Milan-Genoa and the celebrations for the 125th anniversary.
They had had an effect: a drastic watershed between the player unconditionally loved by the Rossoneri fans and the contested director, like the others, for a season that was already pretty obviously going downhill.
The following months have further exacerbated tempers. Ibrahimovic made headlines for his talks with potential sporting directors together with Cardinale, only to then find himself in the ‘second row’ after Furlani’s hierarchical claims.
The fact is that, a year and a half after his appointment, many people still cannot understand what Ibra actually does, Zvonimir Boban included. Even the relegation of Milan Futuro obviously did not help him because he put his trusted friend Jovan Kirovski in charge.
The project will continue despite the relegation to Serie D, but on the field it has been a failure despite the approximately €15m invested. Zlatan, on the day of the relegation play-off second leg against SPAL, chose to go and watch the Primavera where his son Maximilian was playing.
It was an absence that has not gone unnoticed. The Rossoneri fans also reproach him for the optimistic words spent throughout the season. A list of ‘everything is under control’ and ‘we are calm’, in addition to the personalised praise for each of the new signings who then did not deliver.
Just as perhaps it was legitimate to expect a greater impact on some players who remained largely below their standards throughout the season. All pieces that put together outline an ‘unpleasant and complex’ scenario. Everyone under scrutiny, therefore, including Ibra.