Zlatan Ibrahimovic said he “waited four years” to get his “revenge” by sending Inter defender Marco Materazzi to hospital during a Milan-Inter derby.
After being treated roughly by Materazzi whilst at Juventus, Zlatan never forgot about the incident and revealed how he got his revenge in an interview with GQ.
“I was at Juve and we played against Inter,” is how Zlatan started the story in the interview with GQ. “Materazzi entered a challenge like an assassin and hurt me. He was a tough football player, that’s OK.
“But there’s two ways to be tough, one of them is aiming to hurt you. Even [Paolo] Maldini was tough, but with a different objective.
“It was Juventus-Inter in 2006 and after the foul I had to leave the pitch for a moment and [coach Fabio] Capello said, ‘I’ll substitute you’. I said, ‘no, I’ll go on.’
“I wanted to return to the pitch to get my revenge on Matrix. If someone does that to me, I won’t forget about it. But after two minutes, I’m in too much pain to go on. I can’t play. Then I go to Inter, Barcelona, Milan…
“In the first game, the 2010-11 derby, they were all against me. OK, this motivates me. But, if you don’t have any control, it’s not good. You’ll lose your head and do something stupid. I got a penalty, and who fouled me? Materazzi. 1-0 Milan.
“In the second half, Matrix is coming at me and I hit him with a Taekwondo move, I sent him to the hospital. [Dejan] Stankovic asked me ‘why did you do that?’ And I replied to him: ‘I have been waiting for this moment for four years. That’s why.’
“Then I left. What goes around comes around. Milan won and it was a good moment because the old club was great.”
The Swedish superstar will reveal his next destination mid-December, after confirming his time at LA Galaxy in the MLS is over, and he has reportedly agreed to return to the Rossoneri.