Man Utd star screamed at squad in dressing room and no one said a word | Football | Sport

Marcos Rojo has confirmed Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s self-proclaimed “the lion” status, recalling the striker’s fiery presence in the Manchester United dressing room. The Swedish superstar stormed into Old Trafford in 2016, signing a one-year contract as a free agent.

Jose Mourinho secured the services of the prolific forward for a year, with an option to extend for another year, aiming to bolster United’s silverware prospects. During his tenure at United, Ibrahimovic clinched both the League Cup and the Europa League.

Rojo, a fellow team member, found common ground with Ibrahimovic through their mutual friend Ezequiel Lavezzi, which strengthened their rapport. In a 2023 interview with TyC Sports, Rojo shed light on the animated nature of the Swede in the dressing room, where he often held court while others remained silent.

He recalled: “He appeared in the group on a Friday, he had trained one day, and we travelled. He started the game and scored an incredible goal.

“They tied us, and they were hitting us with balls. He came in firing, ‘You don’t play football like that, this is a big club!’ This guy arrived 10 minutes ago, and he’s already screaming. [Wayne] Rooney and [Bastian] Schweinsteiger were there… nobody said anything to him. And I was thinking, ‘Whoa, this is very spicy.'”

Ibrahimovic’s hunger for success was palpable from the get-go at United, occasionally leading to friction with his teammates. Indeed, Rojo even experienced a heated confrontation with the striker in the dressing room.

“In a game, he got heated, and I answered him,” Rojo added. “I started b****ing about him. We both started to argue. The first half ended and we went to the dressing room. I said, ‘No, now I have to go in and see what he does,’ you saw. I was ready.

“I tell him, ‘You stop yelling at me’, he told me, ‘No, you pass the ball to me, play forward’. He came, and everyone stopped. I stopped too, but I was saying, ‘Grab this one’, then Mourinho came in furious, he started kicking everything.”

Yet the duo quickly resolved their differences, as Rojo recalled: “The next day I was having breakfast, and he came, grabbed me from behind the neck, and we started to laugh.”