The amazing reasons why Zlatan Ibrahimovic is still performing at the peak of his powers in the Premier League
The Swedish maestro has been hugely influential for Manchester United this season, and has been their star player so far
MANY believed that the Premier League would be a step too far for him, but Zlatan Ibrahimovic is proving all the doubters wrong.
His winner away at Selhurst Park was his 14th goal of the season, and he is showing that at the tender age of 35 he can still perform at the peak of his powers.
Without the goals from the maverick centre-forward, Manchester United would be down in 13th spot, the Swedish striker has won eight points alone for his side.
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He has remarkably started 14 out of the 15 league games so far, a true testament to how Ibrahimovic maintains his physical shape.
But just how does he do it?
One key reason is the fact that he has his own personal physiotherapist, Dario Fort, who helps him maintain his sharpness.
Fort has played a major part in helping the former Paris Saint-Germain star, and the two regularly work overtime striving to get better.
The two worked together in France, and he also used to work at AC Milan before the two struck up a close friendship.
As told in his autobiography ‘I Am Zlatan,’ the six-foot-four towering striker refrains from drinking alcohol.
He said: “I haven’t been drunk too many times.
“Just one episode where I passed out in the bathtub after the first Scudetto with Juventus. That was (David) Trezeguet, that snake, who egged me on to drink shots.”
Aside from listening to reggae music whilst on the treadmill or lifting weights, Ibrahimovic turns to martial arts to help him stay focused.
At just 17, he became a black-belt in taekwondo having passed the test in his home city of Malmo.
It came as no surprise then that when he signed for the club , he broke the power records in his medical, and you wouldn’t put it past him breaking the records again in the Summer.
Since the 2001/02 campaign, the fewest amount of appearances Ibrahimovic has mustered in a single season is 34 games, and that was in 2007/08.
He has scored over 400 club goals in just over 700 appearances, and has won league titles in Spain, Holland, Italy and France.