Zlatan Ibrahimovic, 40, has further staked his claim to be one of the games most legendary strikers after he joined Manchester United forward and five-time Ballon d’Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo record as the only players to have scored against 80 different teams.
Ibrahimovic, who is one of only five active players to have scored more than 500 career goals, is determined to ensure that he achieves as much as he can individually as he nears the end of a very illustrious playing career.
The big Swede joined AC Milan in 2020 for a third stint after taking almost a year away from the sport and has been phenomenal for the Rossoneri. The former Paris Saint-Germain forward has scored 36 goals in 64 games for the club, taking his tally to 92 goals in 149 appearances in Rossoneri colours.
This season, he is the club’s top scorer in Serie A with eight goals from 13 games to put him among players with the best goal-per-minute ratio in Italy this season.
Ibrahimovic scored his eighth goal of the season in the first two minutes of AC Milan’s win over Venezia to equal Ronaldo’s record. He tapped in from close range following a cross from fellow attacker Rafael Leao to put the Italian giants ahead.
The goal was one of three unreplied goals scored by Milan on Sunday night, as they go head to head with city rivals and stadium neighbours Internazionale for the Serie A title this season, one point separating both teams as things stand.
Ibrahimovic not looking forward to retirement
Ibrahimovic signed with Milan for one year in the summer of 2020 but his impressive performances convinced manager Stefano Pioli to urge the board to keep him for another year.
There has been no concrete news of a contract extension and as such, plenty of speculation surrounding the former Barcelona man’s career has sprung up. Some reports, however, claim that Milan is looking into the possibility of giving Zlatan one more year as they continue their squad rebuild in the same vein as stadium neighbours Inter Milan.
Ibrahimovic, who has also come out of international competition retirement to play for the Swedish national team again as he targets one last World Cup finals appearance, previously talked about his fear of retiring from the game he still loves with a passion.
“I want to play as long as possible,” he told the Italian talk show Che Tempo Che Fa earlier this month. “As long as I have that adrenaline, I will continue.
“I don’t know what will happen after football, so I am a little scared to stop. We’ll see, but I want to continue playing so that I don’t have any regrets.
“Let’s put pressure on Milan here to give me an extension and I hope to stay at Milan for life,” Ibrahimovic added.
“I still have objectives that I can achieve and I want to win another Scudetto.”
