Jose Mourinho taunts Zlatan Ibrahimovic saying: Are you as good as me?
The Manchester United manager lured his new star signing to England by challenging him to match his achievments
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JOSE MOURINHO has revealed how he challenged Zlatan Ibrahimovic to match HIS achievements in order to get him to Old Trafford.
The Swedish striker has won titles in Holland, Italy, Spain and France but not in England.
And it was some teasing from new Manchester United boss that finally encouraged to take the next big step in his amazing career and join the Premier League.
Mourinho said: “When I told him that I had won in England, Spain and Italy and he hadn’t, that he’d done Spain, Italy and France, he thought, ‘Ahh, I want to go. I want to win every one’. So his motivation is high.
“He’s made money, he’s won a lot of things but you only come to the most difficult championship in the world if you feel you can do it.
“If you don’t feel you can do it you go to America, China, stay in the French league one more season. So the guy wanted this one more challenge.”
Ibra played under Mourinho at Inter for one season from 2008-09.
Now six years on at the age of 34 the question is whether the towering 6ft 4in frontman can deliver just as he did in Serie A and La Liga.
But Mourinho, 53, has no doubts claiming the self-styled ‘Legend’ has an ‘amazing body’.
He said: “I always think there’s our age in ID terms but then there’s our real age because for me the real age is not the age on your ID. That’s just a date when you were born.
“The real age, the real ID is your body, your brain, your attitude and this guy is young — his body is amazing.
“The way he grew up playing the sports he did before football, especially martial arts, he was prepared in terms of his muscles and mental point of view in a different way to the traditional football player. It’s his DNA, his motivation.
“On Sunday he is going to start a specific programme we have prepared before he joins our group on the Thursday so he has five days just for him. So I expect he is going to be very good for us.”
While Mourinho confirmed that 30-year-old will remain his captain he believes that Ibrahimovich will also be a leader.
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He added: “Sometimes people say the team has no leaders, it’s this, it’s that, but what we need is everybody with the same kind of mentality.
“I like communication and push them to communicate. I give a lot of instruction in training.
“It’s difficult for me to do the same in matches so I need guys on the pitch to read the game, to understand what we want.
“Zlatan is going to be one of them and I feel already we have guys to do the same.”
With joining Ibrahimovic plus the quality already at Mourinho’s disposal the new boss is promising goals, goals, goals.
That will be music to the ears of Red Devils fans after the two turgid years under Louis van Gaal.
Mourinho said: “When I see our group in the attacking areas. Zlatan, , Rooney, Mkhitaryan, Mata, all the wingers we have.
“I think we have lots of quality in attack to produce good football and score goals.”
It will take time to unpick the work done by LVG who famously claimed to have trained the players in the brain.
Unfortunately it appeared to be to pass the ball sideways and backwards too often and keep possession without ever having a shot.
Mourinho is changing all that, he wants to get United back to being the team admired worldwide for exciting football. He said: “The appetite is very good, they want to work, they want to improve.
“They need to work because the most difficult thing in football is when I go to a new club I need to change the dynamic, the way of thinking.
“Maybe some managers who go after me at clubs find the same thing if they’re not happy with the dynamic of the team.
“This is quite hard for the players because they become quite automatic in their way of thinking so to change some dynamics is not easy. They must be very focused but the players are giving all of this.”
After a 2-0 win at Wigan in his first game in charge, Mourinho now faces Borussia Dortmund at 1pm in a pre-season friendly in Shanghai.
Ibrahimovic’s first game will be against Galatasaray in Gothenburg on July 30.