Zlatan Ibrahimovic called Mino Raiola fat, said ‘f*** you’ and compared him to Danny DeVito after his surgery
In a new book, Raiola reveals the X-rated conversations with frustrated Ibrahimovic as he recovered from career-threatening knee surgery while at Manchester United
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ZLATAN IBRAHIMOVIC raged at super-agent Mino Raiola during his lowest injury rehab moments, telling the Italian to f*** off and comparing him to a “fat” Danny DeVito.
Raiola, who has looked after the Swedish superstar for more than a decade, was by Ibrahimovic's bedside after he underwent a right knee op in the US in May 2017.
In a new book, Raiola reveals the X-rated conversations the pair had as the 37-year-old battled back from career-threatening surgery.
Naturally tempers flared as Ibrahimovic, now with LA Galaxy, battled to return to the Manchester United first team.
And there were even unfavourable comparisons made to the vertically-challenged rotund Hollywood actor DeVito!
Raiola, 51, said: “After the operation, in Pittsburgh, I’d go in and open the curtains every morning, wake him up and say: “Come on big boy, we’ve got work to do.”
“I said he was faking the injury, that he ought to be in more pain if it was that bad, I tried to get him to forget about it and not show him how worried I was.
“I played the clown, because I needed to be strong for his sake.
“‘F*** you,’ he said, ‘You’re fat – if they make a film about my life, you’ll be played by Danny DeVito.’
“And I said, ‘f*** you,’ and that’s how each day started. I looked after him like a baby, I would wash him and feed him like my own child.
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“He’s right when he says that we became closer than ever there. We’ve always been really close, but the really strong bonds aren’t made when the going’s good, they’re made when things are against you.”
Raiola reckons United boss Jose Mourinho was at fault for bringing Ibrahimovic back from his ACL injury quicker than he should have done in November 2017.
And he claims he told Ibrahimovic to remain at Old Trafford for at least one more season even though his mind was set on a move to the MLS this summer.
Raiola said: “When we got back to England, Manchester United put him on too soon.
“Zlatan is very loyal. He should’ve said no, got them to wait. When I was looking after him at Ajax it emerged that he’d been playing with an injury – he’d had painkilling injections on his big toe before each game – and I said that he had to rest.
“No one can give 100 per cent if they’re not 100 per cent fit. United needed him though and…when he got injured again he was less than happy.
“He couldn’t give 100 per cent. Jose Mourinho saw how he was looking after Marcus Rashford, Paul Pogba and Romelu Lukaku, and he wanted to keep him at the club despite his injury.
“Yet he did understand Zlatan’s situation too, and he let him go. Mourinho was great then.
“The fact is that the biggest argument between me and Zlatan came when he wanted to break his contract with Manchester United."
He added: “We’d signed on for another year but he changed his mind, he wanted to finish at the top of his game. I refused.
“He already wanted to move to LA, but it wasn’t Galaxy then, we had an offer from Los Angeles FC.
“I thought he ought to do another year at United, and I said to him that if he did I would do everything he wanted from then on. Then he got injured.
“Now I see Galaxy as rehab. It’s difficult for an addict to go cold turkey, just like that, and in my eyes LA Galaxy is like rehab.
“If you’ve been a star player for 15, 16 years you have to gradually ease off to prepare for the life that comes after the one that the planets revolved around, but today he’s one of the planets and the kids, Maxi and Vincent, are the centre of it all.”
I AM FOOTBALL – Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Viking, £25, out now
