“I thought he’d be nuts” – Premier League defender says Zlatan Ibrahimovic wasn’t as bad as he thought after face off

Brentford defender Aaron Hickey recently spoke about his experience of sharing the pitch with Zlatan Ibrahimovic. The Swedish striker is often deemed an arrogant player by many.

Hickey, however, found Ibrahimovic to be more normal that what people project him to be. The 20-year-old further claimed that he understood Ibrahimovic is a fantastic player. The Scottish star recently said (via The Daily Record):

"Zlatan, he's a big name. He was good and he wasn't as bad as I thought he was going to be. I thought he'd be nuts. But you could tell the way he walks around and talks to the referee... he's a great player."

Zlatan Ibrahimovic has been one of the biggest strikers of the modern era. The towering attacker has represented esteemed football clubs like AC Milan, Inter Milan, Juventus, Paris Saint-Germain, Barcelona, Manchester United and more during his legendary career.

The 41-year-old currently plies his trade at Serie A side AC Milan. However, he has had an injury-plagued campaign and has made only four appearances across competitions, scoring one goal this season.

Former teammate reveals that Zlatan Ibrahimovic claimed he has as much quality as Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi combined

Dmytro Chygrynsky played for Barcelona for a short period of time. He was teammates with Zlatan Ibrahimovic during that period. The defender has now revealed that Ibrahimovic claimed that he had as much quality as Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo combined.

Ibrahimovic didn't have the best time at the Catalan club as he was not in good terms with Pep Guardiola. Speaking about what the Swede told him at that time, Chygrynsky told Toni Juanmarti:

“We were playing on the pitch and suddenly he says: ‘These people (at Barça) still haven’t understood that I have as much quality as Messi and Cristiano put together. They treat me badly.”

Ibrahimovic scored 22 goals and provided 13 assists in 46 matches for Barca before leaving the club to join Serie A giants AC Milan.