The season seems to be over for Zlatan Ibrahimovic. The AC Milan attacker sustained a calf injury during training, which is expected to keep him out for at least a month. After that he also has to get fit, so the chance that he will return to the field before the summer break is small. It feeds the uncertainty about a continuation of Ibrahimovic’s career.
Season with only 144 minutes of play: the end of Zlatan’s career seems in sight
Ibrahimovic is now 41 years old and his contract with Milan is expiring. He has always said that he wants to keep playing as long as he feels fit, but he has hardly experienced that in the current football year. The striker was first sidelined for months with a knee injury and returned to the rag basket shortly after his return.
Ibrahimovic only played 144 minutes this season, spread over four league games. He scored in the 3-1 defeat to Udinese to become the oldest ever goalscorer in Serie A. It was Ibrahimovic’s last game to date.
It may also appear to have been his farewell match. Ibrahimovic is now suffering from his calf again and will normally not play again this season. As a result, it remains to be seen whether Milan will offer the superstar a new contract and whether there will be an extra chapter in Ibracadabra’s wonderful football story.
Milan will play six more league games this season, the last on June 4 against Hellas Verona, and is also still active in the Champions League. The derby with Internazionale awaits in the semi-finals. Ibrahimovic will not make his comeback anyway: the attacker has not been registered by Milan for the knockout phase.
Milan star releases album for semi-final
Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s role at AC Milan has been marginal on the pitch this season, but the Swedish super striker of yesteryear still has a big voice in the dressing room. Especially when striker Rafael Leão released a new music album.
The Portuguese has been elusive at times in the Champions League this season. The lightning fast wing flash is one of the reasons that the Rossoneri made it to the semi-finals. A week and a half before the first match in the diptych with fellow townsman Internazionale, Leão thought it was a good time to promote his second album.
In 2021, Leão already released his album Beginning. Part two is now out under his pseudonym Way 45: My Life in Each Verse. The production was entirely financed by Leão herself. The attacker used his royal salary as a football player to pursue his dream as a rapper. He set up a label and signed several Portuguese artists.
The music of Leão was already sounding in the dressing room of AC Milan. The selection was used to see how the sounds would be appreciated. In conversation with Rolling Stone UK, he tells how that went. He revealed, “They heard, yes. Some had to laugh, others thought it was beautiful.”
“Zlatan? He had to laugh,” Leão chuckled. The Swedish superstar had to get used to a teammate who released music. “He told me to focus on playing football first. Only the rest also told me that I had to continue in music. I had to keep doing my own thing,” he added.
