Sports
Premier League Quality Is Overrated -Ibrahimovic
Zlatan Ibrahimovic has revealed that the quality of football in the Premier League was overrated exactly as he expected when he signed for Manchester United.
After leaving his native Sweden, Ibrahimovic played four seasons in the Netherlands’ Eredivisie, seven seasons in Italy’s Serie A, four seasons in France’s Ligue 1 and a year in Spain’s La Liga, winning 12 domestic titles in total.
The 116-cap Sweden international finally made the move to the English top flight in July 2016, aged 34, and he explained how he anticipated he would need to adjust to the Premier League.
Ibrahimovic netted 17 goals in 28 games during his first season at Old Trafford and the striker, now at LA Galaxy in the United States’ Major League Soccer, can only imagine what would have happened had he arrived in Manchester 10 years earlier.
“It was exactly like I thought it was,” Ibrahimovic told Tidesports source.
“It was very hyped, it was very intense, the pace was very high, it was good but the quality is a bit over-rated.
“Over-rated from a technical point of view. But it is high pace and intense and if you cannot handle those two things, you cannot survive.
“I don’t regret not having longer in the Premier League. I think everything that happens was meant to happen.
“The only thing is imagine if I came 10 years before I came.
“It would be a different story. But I am more sorry for the fans for not coming earlier because they would have seen a different animal.”
Ibrahimovic revealed he could have made the move to England in 2011 after falling out of favour at Barcelona, but decided to return to Italy with AC Milanrather than join Manchester City.
“I had the chance to go to City when I was at Barcelona but after that moment in Barcelona, I needed to find happiness,” Ibrahimovic added.
“Going back to Italy, I was happy in Italy and I knew I would be happy if I go back and I didn’t know if I would be happy if I go to City because it’s a different challenge.
“It would have been a new club, which Milan also was.
“But I knew the city because I had three years at Inter, I knew the country, so I took a little bit of a safe card.”
England captain Harry Kane netted a hat-trick to guide Bayern Munich to an impressive victory against Stuttgart.
Kane’s goals, plus one from Kingsley Coman, helped Bayern end a three-game winless run in all competitions.
They faced a tough task against a Stuttgart side who sat back and limited their chances, leading Vincent Kompany’s side to enter the break frustrated and with the deadlock unbroken.
Bayern eventually found a way past Stuttgart’s steely defence when Kane drilled a low effort into the bottom corner from around 30 yards out after Joshua Kimmich overturned possession.
Former Nigeria goalkeeper, Dosu Joseph, is full of thanks to God after he miraculously survived another life-threatening automobile accident recent at Kara, along the Lagos-Ibadan Express Way, where a heavy-duty truck ran into his SUV.
Narrating his ordeal, the 51-year-old, who guided Nigeria to gold in the Men’s Football Tournament of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, broke the news in a statement on his social media handles on Friday.
“To God be the glory, another death escaped by Grace and Mercy of God. Me and my friend SM were at Enyo Filling Station after Ojodu Berger bus stop to get fuel on Wednesday, October 2, 2024, around 6 p.m. when this MACK truck fully loaded with iron, with registration number LND 470 XX, left the road and crushed my car beyond repairs. Thank God for life,” he stated.
This is the second time the soft-spoken club proprietor will cheat death by a whisker, having been involved in an accident in 1997 that ended his career at 23 and left his spinal cord in bad shape.
He helped Julius Berger win the Nigeria FA Cup in November 1997 shortly a memorable Olympic outing by keeping a clean sheet in the finals against Katsina United. The following year, he was involved in the auto along Ikorodu Road, Lagos, which not only cut his career short but also left him almost paralysed, ending his spell at Serie A club Reggiana.
The former Nigeria international, who also kept goal for Julius Berger FC, said the case has been reported to Isheri Police Station, Ogun State, where the driver is currently detained and the truck also seized.
According to him, the owner of the truck said he can’t fix the badly damaged SUV until after a year.
Ex – Super Eagles of Nigeria, Okwuchukwu Waobikeze has observed that sports development in Nigeria is going down.
According to him, grassroots sports is very important, without it, the administrators cannot get it right. So everybody should key into grassroots sports development, he said.
Waobikeze said this last Wednesday in an interview with sports journalists shortly after the Port Harcourt All Stars Independence football festival (OCTOBERFEST) at the Port Harcourt club, Rivers State.
He explained that for sports administrators to get it right, grassroots development is key. “They should be organising competition at the grassroots level to fish out the young ones for different sporting activities.
“Grassroots sports is very important so the administrators have to go back to the grassroots.
” Sports Development in Nigeria is going down we need to go back to the basics.
“Look at the just concluded Paris Olympics, Nigeria did not win any medal.
” Our football team did not even qualify for the Olympics. We are going down.
” If they should go back to the grassroots, they will get young ones in the games and talents will be developed.
” I started from school games, to youth games before playing for the national team. Now everybody wants to fly board to play professional football and a lot do not know the basics of the game.
” A lot of people did not know the little things about the game, they just want to play. It is not done so,” Waobikeze stated.
Kiadum Edookor
