Stockholm, April 9 (IANS) Zlatan Ibrahimovic is training with Swedish club Hammerby with the Serie A suspended due to coronavirus. Ibrahimovic, who plays for Italian club AC Milan, has been at his home in Sweden as football in Italy is suspended till April 13.
“I understand Zlatan was down and training today. But there is no major drama in this, he simply wants to keep going and asked if he could train with us. It is so much fun that he wants to train with us,” Hammarby chairman Richard von Yxkull told Swedish news outlet Expressen.
The development has led to Italian media pointing out that Ibrahimovic might not renew his six-month contract at the end of the season. The former Sweden captain, who played 116 times before retiring in 2016, has earlier said that he would like to stay in football after ending his playing career as well.
“I want to learn something new about football, with a different angle. I will contribute from the sidelines, not on the pitch,” he told newspaper Svenska Dagbladet.
Ibrahimovic had announced that he had become part owner at Hammarby in November 2019 while he was on his way out of United States club LA Galaxy. He eventually returned to AC Milan, with whom he had previously spent two seasons in 2010 and 2012 and won the Serie A title once.
Ibrahimovic’s ownership of Hammarby, a rival of his boyhood club Malmo, irked supporters of the latter. Since then, his statue outside the club’s stadium had been vandalised a number of times.
–IANS
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