AGELESS STRIKER ZLATAN Ibrahimovic said he felt like film character Benjamin Button after taking his tally for the season to 28 goals in Manchester United’s 3-0 win at Sunderland.
Ibrahimovic, 35, opened the scoring in the 30th minute of Sunday’s game at the Stadium of Light, rolling Billy Jones and crashing a shot into the bottom corner from the edge of the box.
“The older you are, the more experienced, the more intelligent and you don’t waste energy on things you don’t need,” Ibrahimovic told Sky Sports.
I feel like Benjamin Button. I was born old and will die young,” he added, citing the 2008 Brad Pitt film about a man who ages in reverse.
United manager Jose Mourinho said: “You need these players to break it. Every team has a couple of them. Zlatan did that.”
Victory saw United close to within four points of Manchester City, who occupy the fourth and final Champions League qualifying berth and have played a game more than Mourinho’s side.
“The result was good,” Mourinho said.
We resisted the results of yesterday when Manchester City and Liverpool won. They left us in a position of ‘yes’ or ‘no’. It was ‘yes’.”
The result left Sunderland 10 points adrift of safety at the foot of the table and Mourinho said they had played like a team who were “close to relegation”.
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Have to admit, as a Liverpool fan I wasn’t worried about United him signing over the summer as I thought he was passed it and prob wouldn’t stay fit all year. How wrong I was. Phenomenal athlete, regardless of what you think of his personality etc!
@James: when you consider he’s scored 250 goals since he’s turned 30 he is a phenomena. Most don’t score that in their whole career
@James: if it wasn’t for Zlatan United would be just above the relegation zone
@Jamie @el viento: I think you’re both right. People wrote him off as a lot of his career was on the less premium French League but i wonder what he’d have been like if he moved to United 5 years ago. That said, it didn’t work for him at Barca so you never know
@el viento: most of them were in a lousy league in fairness. Wouldn’t be convinced still.
@BoomBoomBonnie: all goals ha e been against weak opposition too
@BoomBoomBonnie: thankfully he doesn’t need to convince you
@James: I think Zlatan has a great personality. Most of his comments are said tongue in cheek with a twinkle in his eye. He just plays up to the media’s perception of being arrogant because that’s what they expect. By all accounts that ive heard about him, he is one of the hardest workers on the training pitch and is a good influence on the younger players. This, combined with the fact he can still do the business on the pitch at his age speaks volumes of the man.
@Sloop John G: totally agree. I don’t believe he is as arrogant as he lets on in fact I think he enjoys being the enigma he’s become. And sure fair play to him! I’d say doing interview and interview is a pain, may as well have some fun with them.
What’s it with united and 35 year old Swedish strikers?
Maybe he meant “short story character Benjamin Button”. I imagine Zlatan to be a voracious reader of classic literature rather than a watcher of movies