Alexandre Pato has revealed exactly what happened in the training session that led to a fight between Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Oguchi Onyewu.
The now infamous scuffle between the Swede and the American took place in November 2011, during the season that would actually see Milan go on to lift their 18th Scudetto under the guidance of Max Allegri.
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Ibrahimovic had arrived on loan from Barcelona and he scored 14 league goals, as did Pato. The Brazilian recalled how a dangerous challenge from Zlatan during a training session ended up triggering a violent reaction from Onyewu, with things then boiling over.
Pato spoke on the Voci di Calcio podcast and he was asked about what exactly happened between Ibrahimovic and Onyewu that caused them to come to blows, with his words relayed by MilanNews.
“Zlatan took the ball, he went to mark him, then Onyewu unintentionally ‘pum’, hit Ibra’s foot. Except that Ibra’s foot is huge, right? Onyewu’s tackle isn’t exactly simple, you understand? He didn’t hit it like that by chance, he hit Ibra’s ankle and Onyewu continued playing,” he said.
“We understood, Onyewu did it, but it wasn’t with malice, he did it because he wanted to get the ball. Onyewu was just coming back from an injury. Imagine you run and you’re a bit scared, you’re a bit insecure.
“You make a tackle and you do it badly, Onyewu controlled the ball with his back to us and we hear Ibra coming and he comes in with both feet on Onyewu, really to do harm and I said: ‘Damn, what happened?’.
“They both fell to the ground, Onyewu got up calmly, he was really good, with a heart of gold. Not that Ibra isn’t, but he’s more impulsive and he immediately got up, started insulting him and spoke in Swedish, we didn’t understand anything.
“He tried to grab Onyewu like that [by the collar], he grabbed him to knock him down and what did Onyewu do? He grabbed Ibra and ‘bam’. He threw him down. I think there was a camera filming everything, I think they turned it off.
“For Onyewu it was easy, like getting a glass of water. Imagine Ibra, the guy is huge, he grabbed him and let him go to the ground, threw him down and jumped on him, blocked him and raised his arm. When he did that I said to him: ‘Stop, my God, stop, you’re going to kill him!'”
Onyewu broke his ribs and Zlatan still played, injured and got 22 goals that season.. ribs take what to heal a month? 6 weeks?
Broken ribs is really painful as I have tried it on a couple of occasions. Once in a fight and once because I fell out of window of a parked train at a metal festival where I landed at the bottom, of a metal stair. I preferred sitting up in front of my pc as laying was a real torment and I regularly woke up several months afterwards as they kept breaking up and woke up screaming in agony. I nevertheless never went to the doctor or hospital which might have speeded up things 😀
Not weeks or a month on my account, it took many for me like like 3 or 4 months but I also had several ribs broken.
That’s pretty hardcore Martin. 🙂 Falling out of a train to the metal steps at a Metal festival! You must be a Gen X’er.
😀 think I am as I was born in 79.
You definitely are one mate,
I’m born in 76 myself.
😀 Ok
Idk how you even open a window on a train.
No moshing for you at that festival, a?
Sat with my feet out of the window in an overcrowded train as it was an old train and someone was not taking notice of me. Fell maybe 2.5 – 3 meters down 😀
Well it was in my hometown so went home and slept and came the day after but luckily met an American/Mexican from LA who had brought a sh1tload of poain relievers with him so I actually managed to finish the festival. Not a big fan of mosh pits as I’ll just get angry if people jumps into me so generally stay behind them 😀
Wow, my guy, you started your own show? Lol
Sure they was quite worried about me down there and wanted to call an ambulance but I chose to just walk home and sleep 🙂
Onyewu is my cousin brother. Here In Nigeria ( imo state )..we ar strong people and we don’t take s**t…but he doesn’t know me .. 😂
😂😂
What doesn’t know you can still hurt you…
Like moncada and furlani and gerry
I am the onyewu he’s talking about
We Nigeria can’t be intimidated without fighting back.