Zlatan Ibrahimovic is relishing battling with Romelu Lukaku for a Manchester United first-team spot and believes he has qualities that can complement the Belgium international.
Ibrahimovic has re-signed for United on a one-year deal, having initially been released at the end of last season due to a cruciate knee ligament injury.
The 35-year-old, who scored 28 goals in all competitions as United won the EFL Cup and Europa League in Jose Mourinho’s first season at the helm, has progressed well in his recovery, but now has added competition at Old Trafford.
Lukaku joined for £75-million from Everton in July, filling the void left by Ibrahimovic’s injury, and has impressed with four goals in his first three starts for United.
‘I’m happy he [Lukaku] came, I think the team is much stronger this season,’ Ibrahimovic told ESPN.
‘Obviously we lost Wayne Rooney, who’s a legend for the club, but we took three new players and the team is stronger.
‘From the first year, the team has been winning trophies and learning the sacrifice you have to make to win, and the mental part. I think that’s something the coach brought in.
‘Signing Lukaku makes us even stronger because he has different qualities to me as a striker, to [Marcus] Rashford. He’s a powerful guy and he will bring some extra quality.’
Ibrahimovic has put in tireless work behind the scenes to get on the road to recovery, and described his toil in his own inimitable style.
‘Lions, they don’t recover like humans,’ he said.
‘I feel good. I work hard, I didn’t have a day off since the injury, I want to keep playing at the top level and you need to build up the knee and do good, because when I come back I don’t want to be something I wasn’t, I want to be the one I was and even better.
‘So it means I have to train even harder, train myself harder and push myself as much as I can do, and that is what I’m doing every day.
‘But I feel good, nothing rushed like some people think. And we train according to the schedule and according to how I feel.
‘When I’m back, I’m back. I want to have the same pressure, like every year, the same expectation like always.’
The former PSG star added that other clubs were interested in his services, but he only had eyes for resuming his alliance with Mourinho and United.
‘We had a couple of teams reaching out who wanted to have ‘Ibracadabra’ in their team, but I had such a great year with United.’
– This story originally appeared on FourFourTwo.co.za
