Zlatan Ibrahimovic certainly does not have retirement in his immediate thoughts and he could in fact extend his deal with AC Milan, a report claims.
Calciomercato.com report that Ibrahimovic has clear ideas in his mind regarding his future, and hanging up his boots is not an option in the short term. He wants to continue helping Milan along their growth path which he has helped establish since his arrival in the winter window of the 2019-20 season.
The Swede has a fantastic relationship with everyone at the club but particularly with director Paolo Maldini who shares the same thoughts as Ibra: to move forward together if it makes sense for both sides. In other words, if the 40-year-old’s physical condition holds up well and he feels useful to the cause, there will be no problem renewing until 2023.
At the beginning of 2022 a new one-year extension could be signed, therefore without waiting for the end of the season. Of course if Ibrahimovic feels that he has given all he can then the parties will separate, in full respect of what he has given to the club and vice versa.
At the moment though this is the less likely scenario because even if Zlatan’s body is no longer what it once was, he still feels very hungry in the mind. He aims for the Scudetto with Milan and the World Cup in Qatar, in December 2022, with Sweden. Presuming, of course, they qualify.
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The issue in my view isnt really if Ibra stays beyond the season because he is without discusion a very valuable asset to both the locker room and the squad when match fit. The problem is that Ibra most likely wont accept the role of playing second fiddle to any one and thereby keeping him could in my view mean that we potentially wont make the necesseary investment to get his replacement. If keeping zlatan beyond this season means that we wont grab the opprortunity to get a player like belotti when we most likely can pick him up for free then i ‘ll say its a big NO from me and its time for him to either retire, leave or become a coach/assistant within the club.
On the other hand if zlatan can accept staying with us a year more on a perfomance based contract combined with bonuses in regard titles/goals/assists etc and mainly playing certain high profile matches then all the better.
As already mentioned im of the view that Milan should get belotti and a young forward signed atleast unless pelegri turns the tide and starts playing and perfoming with us.
An attack for next year with girould/belotti switaching to speahead the team as our prime attackers while having Alvarez (also able to play the right wing or colombo?/pellegri?/lucca? and zlatan wuld give us an attack with 4 strong attackers where one of them can also play on the right wing. In case we would bring in a player like alvarez obviously colombo would stay out on loan for another season.
Zlata already has accepted second fiddle.
Both in Milan and in Sweden National team.
He wants to help the two teams he loves to grow.
But i agree he should have a performance based contract.
Not really in milan in my view as he generally plays when fit. In Sweden you can argue it but frankly he isnt really in a position to either demand a first spot in swedens squad after his lengthy time out of the team.
I know he want to help us but as much as id like him to stay beyond this season it shouldnt put a limitation on how we moves in the market either as it would be short sighted in my book.
I believe he is already on somen kind of perfomance related contract so that should be the smallest problem to solve.
I understand your reasoning, but I think you are not fully appreciating what Ibra offers to the team, not only in the sense of overall presence but also in terms of tactical options. With all respect to Belotti, he is as linear a striker as Giroud. Ibra is something else. Even at 40 years, he is far better than Giroud and Belotti combined. If he can play on a consistent basis for another year, thats the priority, no matter what players are available for free.
Well i respect your opinion Gunde and i also made it clear that he is of great value to both the locker room and squad when fit so i dont believe that i undervalue his imprortance and i also agree in the sense that ibra is of undoubtedly higher quality of the both when in top form but that is also where we start disagreeing because we simply cant expect him to play more than half a season beyond 2022 season. In my view belotti would fit the formation very well as he comes from a midtable club where he has consistantly bagged two digits goals a season for 6 straigt season withouth the backup he would get with us. He is a hard working mobile atatcker that would give us extra strings to play on and pioli do infact like players to take part either face so having belotti in the squad would also give the team some thing extra that we currently lacks.
edit: either phase 😀
I’m not sure why everyone is clamoring for Belotti. He is not the answer and we should think bigger. To me he is another Borriello. He is not proven at a big club and has certainly not shown on an international stage. We should welcome Ibra back – he has made us grow tremendously and his value goes beyond what he does on the pitch. I agree however, his renewal should not come at the expense of someone like Vlahovic – who is the person we should target (not Belotti IMO), nor should he expect to start. If he accepts coming off bench then that’s fine. But we should strive for better quality than Belotti imo. Kamara, Faivre and Vlahovic would be my choices…
Belotti pretty much has the same stats as inzaghi had with us and for a far worse team so its not far fecthed to believe he at minimum can live up that and potentially exceed those numbers with us and he comes at no expense or at worse pocket change, Comparing him to boriello is stretching it in my view as he both played in milan and roma and having scored less in more games. As already mentioned i do aknowledge his impact within and out of the pitch and did it more than once in the posts above. Problem is we still need to be able to count on his continual pressence on the pitch which isnt the case in my view.
Well dont get me wrong i would absolutely love us to get vlahovic but he will most likely cost 60 mil at minimum as there will be many offers so i really think you are in for a disaointment in that regard.
Getting belotti for free and alvarez at the 20-25 mil mentioned would also still leave us the opportunity and means to still invest in a player like renato sanchez who im more confident being the piece to aquirre if kessie are to leave. I would bid kamara welcome though with both hands if both of them can coexist within our squad.
Would be awesome if he stay 1 more season!!!
Martin Bernhard – totally agree with everything you have said (and with your other posts on different articles actually!) I have nothing else to add.
Thanks
Overrated zlatan Ibrahimovic