“Everything was good until he said you come and do a trial,” Ibrahimovic has opened up on the true story of his failed Arsenal move
Former Juventus, Barcelona, AC Milan and Manchester United star Zlatan Ibrahimovic has opened up on the conversation with Arsene Wenger that saw his move to Arsenal collapse in the 11th hour after having already posed with the No 9 shirt.
Ibrahimovic is going down in history as one of the greatest centre forwards of all time, scoring goals for the creme de la creme of football clubs across Europe and America.
In his career, he won twelve league titles in four different nations and scored over 570 senior career goals.
Before moving to Ajax from Malmo, Ibrahimovic had the chance to move to Arsenal and even posed for photos with the North London outfit, but snubbed them at the last minute.
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“When I was young, I had a lot of interest from a lot of clubs, and one of them was Arsenal,” Ibrahimovic began on Piers Morgan Uncensored.
“So, I came to the office of Mr Arsene Wenger, and it was a big hype because I saw these players, (Dennis) Bergkamp, (Thierry )Henry, I saw (Freddie) Ljungberg, I saw (Patrick) Vieira, I saw all these players, and I was like "F**k, this is big", because these players I see on TV, even if I already played in high level Sweden.
“But this was big, because this was like, ‘I am here now’. Last week I was playing PlayStation with these guys. And I spoke with Wenger, he was tall, I didn't expect him to be so tall.
“I came in his office and we spoke and he was like, ‘What do you want?’ He wanted to get to know me, to feel me. Because I think he is a type of person, he just don't buy the player, he wants to know what he is buying I think. In the end, he had an Arsenal shirt with Number 9 and, "We want you to come and do a trial for two weeks."
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“Everything was good until he said you come and do a trial. I was looking at him. Obviously he is Wenger, I am nobody at that moment. I said, ‘I don't do trials’, and he was like, ‘What do you mean?’
'"I don't do trials, either you want me or you don't want me, or else why am I here?’ That was me, but it was not to play a game, it was me. ‘No, but you have to come and do a trial’ and then, ‘No, no, you don't understand, I don't do trials’. That was it, I never went to Arsenal.”
At the time of his failed move aged 17, Arsenal enjoyed one of the best periods in their history, challenging Manchester United for supremacy in the English top-flight.
The Gunners won three Premier League titles in seven seasons from 1997-98 to 2003-04, the last one achieved without losing a single game.
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