Zlatan Ibrahimovic has now revealed the one question Arsene Wenger raised that saw his proposed move to Arsenal collapse at the last second after posing in the No9 shirt.
The Gunners hosted the legendary Sweden striker at their training ground while Ibrahimovic was still making a name for himself. Wenger sought to snap up the attacker as a 17-year-old still cutting his teeth in Malmo FF’s academy. Yet just one question saw a switch fall through.
Ibrahimovic went on to emerge as one of the greatest strikers of his generation and enjoyed a trophy-laden career. He retired this June as a five-time Serie A champion, four-time Ligue 1 winner, two-time Eredivisie champion, a La Liga winner and also a Europa League champion.
Ibrahimovic reveals Wenger’s one question that ruined his Arsenal move
Across spells with AFC Ajax, Juventus, Inter Milan, Barcelona, AC Milan, Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester United and LA Galaxy, Ibrahimovic scored 511 goals. He also lifted a total of 34 trophies and was in contention to win the Ballon d’Or 11 times before then retiring aged 41.
What could have been, then, had Arsenal added Ibrahimovic to their already stacked attack featuring Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp. Their sheer number of legends at Wenger’s disposal astounded Ibrahimovic when he visited Arsenal to speak with the iconic manager.
But after that initial astonishment, things took a turn for the worse when Wenger expressed that Arsenal wanted to take Ibrahimovic on an initial trial. Much to the iconic Gunners boss’ bemusement, the Sweden hero refused and his proposed move to north London collapsed.
“I came in his office and we spoke and he was like, ‘What do you want?’,” Ibrahimovic noted on Piers Morgan Uncensored. “He wanted to get to know me, to feel me, because I think he is a type of person, he just don’t buy the player, he wants to know what he is buying, I think.
‘I don’t do trials. Either you want me or you don’t’
“In the end, he had an Arsenal shirt with No9 and [said], ‘We want you to come and do a trial for two weeks’. Everything was good until he said you come and do a trial.
“I was looking at him. Obviously, he is Wenger, I am nobody at that moment. I said, ‘I don’t do trials’, and he was like, ‘What do you mean?’. ‘I don’t do trials. Either you want me or you don’t want me, or else why am I here?’
“That was me but it was not to play a game, it was me. ‘No, but you have to come and do a trial’ and, ‘No, you don’t understand, I don’t do trials’. That was it. I never went to Arsenal.”
Ibrahimovic could have taken Wenger to a Champions League title
Arsenal hosted Ibrahimovic at their training ground at a time Wenger’s team were fighting Manchester United for Premier League supremacy. The Gunners did the double during the 1997/98 season as top-flight and FA Cup winners. But they failed to take either in 1998/99.
Titles eluded the Highbury heroes again in 1999/2000 and 2000/01. But Wenger sealed two Premier League titles and three FA Cups in the next four seasons. By then, Ibrahimovic was a two-time league champion at Ajax before firing Juventus to two, later revoked, Serie A titles.
Together, then, Ibrahimovic and Wenger may have potentially taken Arsenal to a Champions League title. It is the one trophy that escaped both men during their storied careers. Arsenal reached their only final to date in 2005/06, while Ibrahimovic never once featured in a final.
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