Zlatan Ibrahimovic has credited Patrick Vieira as a major influence on his career. In a wide ranging interview with BBC’s Football Daily Podcast, the Swedish striker said that Vieira was always pushing him.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic played for Juventus between 2004 and 2006. Then, still a younger player, he had the chance to train and play with Patrick Vieira, a football titan.
Viera moved to Juventus in 2005 after 10 golden years with Arsenal. However, Zlatan Ibrahimovic had met him before that.
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“I remember we played against Arsenal. When I was in Ajax there was this Amsterdam Arena tournament. I remember when we were sitting on the bench, the whole Ajax team. Patrick Vieira was the only player from Arsenal to give his hand to every player when he passed them.
“I said to myself this is something else, this is different. As a player everybody knows him, he is the hard guy. When I met Patrick Vieira for the first time it was in Juventus, I knew who he was.
“When he came to Juventus, he had a big influence on my game. To train everyday good, the way you train is the way you play. He was on me all the time.”
Zlatan, a self-assured character to say the least, had his work cut out for him with the World Cup winner.
“Normally when you yell at somebody, you put pressure on somebody. Normally the pressure doesn’t come back because you have different personalities, different characters. But from him, it came twice back, and I was not used to that.
“He was on me all the time so when I thought I did good, he said I did bad. He was always on me and he triggered my mentality by not being satisfied – you have to do much more because it’s not enough. And he knows what he’s talking about. He won the trophies he’s won, he played with fantastic world class players.”
