Zlatan Ibrahimovic and LeBron James could end up turning their feud into a friendship with the news of AC Milan’s takeover, a report claims.
La Gazzetta dello Sport reports how RedBird Capital and Gerry Cardinale have completed the acquisition of the club but they have Main Street Advisors among the investors in the project, who in turn have LeBron as one of their investors.
In February of last year, Ibrahimovic responded to LeBron James during a program aired on Discovery+ Sweden about engaging in protests in America, where LeBron had supported Black Lives Matter activists.
“He is a phenomenon, but I don’t like it when people who achieve a certain status are in politics. Just do what you are good at, better keep away from certain topics,” he said.
Then a reply came from the NBA star: “There is no way that I remain silent in the face of injustices and limit myself to sport. I am part of my community and I have over 300 kids in my schools who need a voice, and I am their voice.
“I am the wrong person to criticise in this area because I have a ‘very polite’ mind and I have done my homework… I will always deal with issues such as equality, social justice, racism, medical assistance and the right to vote.
“It’s funny that he says these things, because he is the same guy who in 2018 talked about racism in Sweden linked to his origins and his surname.”
A second round came in September, when in an interview with France Football Ibrahimovic returned to the subject, albeit without explicitly mentioning the name of LeBron.
“As already said in the past, I keep repeating that we are not politicians. Politics divides people, football unites them. There is a huge difference. Because I was lucky enough to know and make myself known by people I would never have met if I hadn’t played football,” he said.
“I have forged ties in every corner of the world, precisely because we are figures capable of uniting. Politics does the opposite. If I had wanted to do politics I would have been a politician, instead we must only think about doing what we are good at. Sport and politics remain two different categories.
“If you are smart, you immediately understand what I mean. We cannot take political issues around the world. I’m not here to send bad messages to people, but only to unite and to make the fans happy.”
Now Zlatan and LeBron are on the same page and are united by their support for Milan. It could well be that a friendship of sorts blossoms from the feud, or of course LeBron may remain distant from the Main Street Advisors operations.
GdS is down hard coming up with this kind of article.
Zlatan is a Milan player.
Lebron is one of probably 100 minority investors that is part of a fund that is joining the main investor RedBird in buying Milan.
Just like with Liverpool, besides posting on social media once in a blue moon about Liverpool game, Lebron has no influence or any kind of presence around the club
Even if Zlatan retires and moves up into Milan management his interactions with Lebron would be nonexistent
I don’t think it would be an issue
Yeah, it was the reporters who created the “feud” with their questions. Both players are just answering what was asked by those reporters.