Zlatan Ibrahimovic's Spanish sojourn started with the words, “It feels like I'm living a dream now.”- words that would prove to be completely ironic keeping in mind the season he was to have at Barcelona. In 2009, the club under Pep Guardiola was just finding its way into a period of complete dominance in the Spanish League. Zlatan appeared to be the last piece of the puzzle.
A blazing start
Like his encounter with English football, he was slated to be a star before he was signed by the prestigious club and he made sure he did not disappoint. Very much like his start at Manchester United, the Swede began his La Liga experience with a bang as he scored in all of his first five league fixtures and eleven times in his first twelve games.
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He arrived at Camp Nou with a lot of promise, famous for his extraordinary skills and outspoken attitude. In fact, even before the season began, he had established himself as a strong rebel both on and off the field. Consequently, there were a few initial hiccups regarding Zlatan's presence in the club ranks as he probably had trouble adjusting to the way things were carried out at FC Barcelona.
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On his very first day of training, he was instructed to not bring his Porsche to practice and, instead, use one of the club's Audis. Little things, both on and off the field, seemed to herald the potential disaster that lay ahead of him.
Ibrahimovic; never the one to turn away from a challenge
Looking back at the now 34-year old's career, ‘Ibracadabra’ has pretty much established himself as a serial winner over the last decade or so having won a trophy in every season since 2004, except for one. By no means was Barcelona a black spot in his career as he carried on scoring goals at every opportunity he got. The fact that he had a massive impact on their gameplay was clearly evident in the second leg of the El Clasico at Camp Nou in 2009.
He came on in the 51st minute and it took him all of five minutes to net a cross from Dani Alves, scoring what was eventually the only goal in the match. Having previously won the first-leg of this high-profile clash with a score of 6-2 at the Bernabeu, the 1-0 win in the second leg was quite underwhelming. Zlatan, however, burned bright in a fixture that would have been an inevitable deadlock if not for him.
Pep Guardiola, on the other hand, has always been looked up to as a rather revolutionary figure in the game. Being a very vocal admirer of Johan Cruyff, it is natural that much of this tactician’s methods are influenced by the Dutch legend. Not only is the Spaniard a genius when it comes to reading the game, he is a hard and gruelling taskmaster forever relentless in the pursuit of perfection.
Guardiola's illustrious career at Barcelona included a lot of positives. However, he failed to accommodate a player who was clearly a genius in his own right.
So where did it all go wrong?
One cannot help but muse over the fact that Ibra used to be one of Pep's biggest supporters. In fact, when Guardiola renewed his contract for another year at Barcelona in January 2010, the Swede was the first player to profess excitement at his manager's continued association with his club. At that time, he had famously remarked, “I am very happy that Guardiola is staying because he has given me so much. Barca could not afford to lose a coach like him.” Matters, however, were yet to worsen.
Lionel Messi, Barcelona's prolific player, was a direct cause for the relationship between Ibra and Pep turning sour. But, rather than taking a professional stance, Guardiola assumed the role of what Zlatan later termed as a “spineless coward”. Instead of a complete and thorough strategic discussion with his player, Guardiola slowly went on to weed Ibra out and assimilate the in-form Lionel Messi into his scheme of things.
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The motto of FCB is "more than a club" and the exact sentiment behind these words is the reason why Barcelona strives to be more than just about winning games. With the presence of a perfectionist like Pep Guardiola at the helm, this philosophy gained ground and Zlatan's goal scoring frequency did little to cement his place in the team.
It was quite evident that the club was unable to play to its full potential as long as the players assumed the same roles as they currently were. It clearly was time for a change. Messi realised this a little sooner and, sometime in early 2010, asked to play the “false nine” position permanently.
He wanted to be at the centre of Barcelona's three-man attack, a position that belonged to Zlatan at that time, and one he held well- a fact that few would argue against. However, Messi seemed to play it better as he ended up scoring a hat-trick in a 3-0 win over Valencia without Zlatan playing and repeated the feat in an away game against Real Zaragoza.
Messi’s presence loomed large
Ibra talked about this period in his autobiography, I am Zlatan, and said, “Messi started saying things. Lionel Messi is amazing. He’s totally amazing. He went to Guardiola and said: ‘I don’t want to be on the right wing anymore, I want to play in the centre.’ I was the striker. Guardiola didn’t give a damn about that, though. He changed the tactical formation. Guardiola had to listen to him.”
The tone of this passage effectively betrays his admiration for his Barcelona teammate while directing a thorough contempt towards his boss' handling of matters. A miscommunication between player and manager deteriorated things to a point of no return. After that, Ibra would play a full 90 minutes on only one occasion for the Los Cules.
His playing time progressively decreased. In the match against Espanyol, he got seven minutes. At Villarreal, he got six. By the end of the season, Zlatan had clearly had enough. He infamously kicked over the kit box on his way off the field in silent mutiny ending his season with 21 goals in 46 games- a thorough waste of the talent he had promised to bring to the club.
The final chapter
“Guardiola started his philosopher thing. I was barely listening. Why would I? It was advanced b******t about blood, sweat, and tears, that kind of stuff,” he later remarked. Everything Zlatan has to say about his ex-manager is mostly along similar tones. While he understood the need to give up his position to Messi, a small twinge of betrayal at the way things ended always remained.
When Ibra left the club for AC Milan, Guardiola took it upon himself to assure the public that all was well. “It was a pleasure to coach Zlatan,” he said in September 2010, "I learned a lot from him. He has been playing at the top level for eight to 10 years, while I have coached for only two.”
He may have surely meant it as a mark of respect but the two have carefully avoided unnecessary mention of each other in public since then. While Guardiola has maintained that he has no immediate problem with the player, Zlatan is definitely not in a forgiving mood. In fact, for most of the time, he refrains from referring to the current Manchester City manager by name preferring the moniker “The Philosopher” instead.
Derby days are essentially heated ones especially in this case where the two clubs share geographic and cultural similarities. A certain pride is associated with whichever side of Manchester you wish to pledge your support to. Professionally, both Ibra and Pep have chosen their sides and the Derby might just see a glimpse of this famous rivalry once again.
