Zlatan Ibrahimovic showed his caring side when talking to Mike Maignin during the racism incident away at Udinese on Saturday night.
As highlighted by Milan News, the Swedish former striker was seen comforting Maignin one-to-one away from the rest of the players, showing how he can be such a valuable link between the playing squad and those running the higher operation at Milan.
Having been a player in this squad until so recently, he has personal relationships with many of the players.
This is the kind of link that Paolo Maldini was able to create whilst working as a technical director. Whilst he hadn’t been a teammate of the current players, he was viewed as an important figure who understood playing for a club like Milan.
There are many different ways in which Ibrahimovic’s new advisory role can be seen as a good idea, and this was one of them in action at a very important moment for Maignan and the club.
Maignan had walked off the pitch in the first half against Udinese as he had been hearing monkey noises being aimed at him by some fans behind the goal. The rest of the players joined him when it became clear what had happened.
I’m sure Ibra had his fair share of insults as well with his Balkan origins so he knows how to handle situations like this.