GdS: ‘Let’s leave our mark’ – Ibrahimovic fired up to beat Juventus as burning desire remains

AC Milan versus Juventus is a fixture that Zlatan Ibrahimovic knows well, but tomorrow he will have to watch the game from the stands for the first time.

This morning’s edition of La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) reports that no matter what happens tomorrow night, Ibrahimovic will not forget it. The three points up for grabs will have a huge weight for the Rossoneri who want to relaunch themselves as Scudetto candidates, or at least not lose further ground from the Champions League zone.

The enthusiasm generated by the wins against Inter and Real Madrid was squandered by Paulo Fonseca’s team with subsequent disappointing performances and now they are far from the top of Serie A. They are not out of the title race, but if they want to get back in and forget the 3-3 before the break against Cagliari, they can’t make more mistakes.

Zlatan knows this well and in recent days he has often been at Milanello, without speaking to the team but making the players and the coach feel his presence at a moment that could be the key one of the season. A victory against the Bianconeri would help see things (and the table) from a different perspective, but a loss could be disastrous.

Ibrahimovic was appointed by Gerry Cardinale as senior advisor to RedBird, the fund that controls Milan. In a year of little work he had a significant impact, but not as much as he would have liked. Also because he thinks in terms of results obtained and cannot be satisfied with those.

Together with CEO Giorgio Furlani and technical director Geoffrey Moncada, Zlatan makes the most important decisions. Yet, it is clear that – since the Swede is the owner’s trusted man, in addition to being a former champion with an impressive trophy cabinet – his words weight a little more. Especially in decisions relating to the composition of the team.

After the defeats against Parma and Liverpool he spoke to the squad, and made a call to Theo Hernandez and Rafael Leao to definitively close the cooling break saga, and also encourage the Portuguese forward who was in difficulty after being benched in the league.

He would have liked to make his voice heard on other occasions, but he avoided it so as not to undermine the role of the coach, whom he respects and with whom he has a constant dialogue. Zlatan thinks that the season is still long and that it can be full of satisfactions.

Ibrahimovic’s challenge is to bring his winning mentality to Milanello. The other directors are already aligned with him as demonstrated by Moncada’s statements to Dazn and MilanNews. The last trophy came in 2021-22 when Zlatan was still on the field and a leader of the squad. Now he has changed role, but behind a desk he has the same desire.