Ibrahimovic on his Utd exit: I didn’t want to disappoint Mourinho

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The Swedish striker admits that the combination of his knee injury and his partner’s desire to move to LA made him decide to leave Old Trafford

Zlatan Ibrahimovic has confessed that he moved to Major League Soccer because he had nothing more to give Jose Mourinho at Manchester United.

The veteran centre-forward secured a free-transfer to LA Galaxy after being released from his contract by the Red Devils back in March.

The Swede scored 28 goals in all competitions in his debut season for Mourinho’s side but he sustained serious knee ligament damage towards the end of the 2016-17 campaign, which kept him out action until November the following season.

Ibrahimovic soldiered on until well into the new year, but he was unable to reproduce his best form , which he alludes to in extracts from his new book “I’m Zlatan Ibrahimovic”, as reported by Expressen .

“If you want me to play, I’m playing, but I do not want to disappoint you. I can not give you what I can usually give you,” Zlatan says he told Mourinho towards the end of his time in Manchester.

The chance to play in the MLS arose soon after and his agent Mino Raiola has revealed that Ibrahimovic’s long-time partner Helena Seger also played a major part in his final decision to move to America.

“This is what he does for the family,” Raiola said. “It’s an old promise to Helena to move to Los Angeles once. She loves Los Angeles.”

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The book offers a unique insight into Ibrahimovic’s entire career, which spans over 19 years, during which time he has played for nine different clubs around the globe.

The 37-year-old also looks back on when he left AC Milan to join Paris Saint-Germain in 2012, which he has suggested was not initially a move he was prioritising.

“I wanted to keep my Milan salary,” Zlatan states in the book. “I wanted them (Parisians) to say something like, ‘Dude, you’re exaggerating, you’re asking too much’, I wanted to use that for them to withdraw.

“But only twenty minutes later, Mino reminded me and said: ‘You have everything you asked for’. After that, there was no turning back so I told him ‘ok, get everything ready’. I am a man of my word.”

Ibrahimovic went on to play for PSG for four years, scoring 156 goals in 180 appearances, which set a new club record before his move to United in the summer of 2016.

The ex-Milan striker is now enjoying some time off following LA Galaxy’s failure to make the MLS playoffs , having scored 22 goals in his first 27 games for the club.

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