Ibrahimovic claims he wouldn’t have hidden ‘true story’ if he’d left Man Utd like Ronaldo | OneFootball

Zlatan Ibrahimovic reckons the “true story” of Cristiano Ronaldo’s exit from Man Utd will never be known with the Portugal international trying to “protect himself”.

Reports over the summer indicated that Ronaldo was doing everything possible to try and engineer a move away from the club after Man Utd failed to qualify for the Champions League.

He stayed, due to a lack of concrete interest from top European clubs, but his lack of playing time under Erik ten Hag soon came to the boil when he refused to come off the bench in a 2-0 Premier League victory over Tottenham.

Ronaldo was fined and made to train alone before he returned to first-team training the following week having apologised to Ten Hag and his team-mates.

But just a few weeks later he caused a stir again when he gave a controversial interview to Piers Morgan ahead of the World Cup.

That led to Man Utd agreeing to terminate his contract with Ronaldo criticising the manager, senior executives, former players and more.

Man Utd and Ronaldo seem to have a different version of events from his time at the club and Sweden legend Ibrahimovic doubts we will ever hear the “true story” of what actually happened.

“His exiting United, I think when things happen, we will never know the true story,” Ibrahimovic told reporters (via the Manchester Evening News). “They say what they want to say, he says what he needs to say to protect himself, then you have the coach that says these things to protect himself.

“Then the club says things – not like me, I will tell you how it really happened. But we are all different. Everybody is careful about their image. For me the perfect image is being yourself. The true story we will not know my friend.”

Ronaldo had a disappointing World Cup, where he was the centre of attention again after reacting angrily to being subbed against South Korea, and was pictured in tears after Portugal were beaten by Morocco in the quarter-finals.

Ibrahimovic added: “Everybody wants to win the World Cup; not everybody gets to win the World Cup.

“Everybody is trying and if you don’t win it obviously you’ll get emotional, if you win it, you get also emotional in a different way.”

Ronaldo’s Portugal team-mate Rafael Leao was impressive in a number of cameo appearances and Ibrahimovic is predicting big things for the 23-year-old at AC Milan.

Ibrahimovic continued: “Of course, Milan is the right environment for him. Just look at his growth, when he arrived, he was far from the decisive player he is today. Here he is very important for us, elsewhere would he be as important? He would have to start from scratch, you can’t be sure he would be ready right away.

“At Milan he has confidence, space and freedom, which is not a given at another club, it’s up to you. Besides, you can see that he is happy here, by now he is laughing even before scoring. He is the young man who has grown the most.

“Theo has improved so much, De Ketelaere is strong, and patience is needed. But Leao is on another level, above average. He lacks a step, he will only do it when he is fully convinced of his abilities.”