Jose Mourinho's amazing reaction to Zlatan Ibrahimovic wanting to be subbed off for Inter | OneFootball

Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Jose Mourinho might only have worked together for a single season at Inter Milan, but it could hardly have been more successful.

With the ‘Special One’ back in the dugout after his emotional exit from Chelsea, Ibrahimovic was able to mark his final season wearing black and blue stripes at the San Siro with no less than 29 goals.

Up until that point, it marked the most prolific season of Ibrahimovic’s career and there’s no denying that having a like-minded winner in Mourinho calling the shots helped him to reach those new heights.

Mourinho and Ibrahimovic

And we know that because Ibrahimovic has spoken at length about his admiration for the AS Roma boss, highlighting a number of tactics that the legendary coach used in order to get the very best out of him.

From barely celebrating a single goal of his until the final day of the season to generally always demanding more and more, Mourinho knew exactly the right buttons to press to send Ibrahimovic into beast mode.

In fact, one ploy that Mourinho used in order to keep pushing Ibrahimovic all the way is simultaneously brutal and funny to such an extent that it’s gone viral again more than 13 years down the line.

Inter Milan vs Siena (2009)

Allow us to take you back to May 17, 2009, when Inter are hosting Siena in the league having already wrapped up the title the previous day courtesy of AC Milan’s 2-1 defeat to Udinese.

And despite the fact that Inter still had to fulfil their fixture on the Sunday, the players managed to persuade Mourinho to hit the town to celebrate the club’s 17th Serie A triumph on the Saturday night.

However, once everyone got back to business for the Siena clash at the San Siro, there was still silverware in the cross hair of Ibrahimovic who was hunting down Bologna’s Marco Di Vaio in the league goalscoring charts.

But when the Swedish striker – who was clearly feeling worse for wear – made it to the early second-half having not added to his tally, the Guardian’s report from the time explains how he duly asked to be subbed off.

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Zlatan Ibrahimovic was born in which city?

Stockholm Gothenburg Helsingborg Malmo

According to Goal, the requests were also down to Ibrahimovic getting frustrated with his teammates, hitting out at Mario Balotelli after he had scored Inter’s second goal of the night.

Mourinho’s brilliant antics

Mourinho wasn’t having any of it, though. Rather, the Portuguese manager not only left Ibrahimovic in a state of shock by ignoring his pleas, but proceeded to take the absolute mickey with his choice of substitutions.

In truly amusing scenes, Mourinho proceeds to take off three players other than Ibrahimovic, culminating in the hilarious decision to swap goalkeepers from Julio Cesar to Paolo Orlandoni for absolutely no reason.

And the thing is, the tactic worked a treat because it forced Ibrahimovic to stay on the pitch and score in the 76th minute, duly keeping him in the hunt for a Golden Boot that he would eventually win.

All in all, it made for the sort of ‘Is that really what just happened?’ madness that you only ever really see from Mourinho, so be sure to bask in the hilarious exchange with Ibrahimovic down below:

You love to see it. Ibrahimovic’s face when Mourinho mugged him off was a picture.

Mourinho explains the incident

However, the joy of the incident doesn’t end there because Mourinho, who later reunited with Ibrahimovic at Manchester United, eventually explained what he was thinking with his antics in April 2014.

According to Sky Sports, he said: “He was very angry and upset as he came at me. He was shouting, ‘We are champions, I helped a lot to make you champions, now nobody’s helping me. I want to [come off] now’.

“But I pretended not to understand him. I said, ‘What? What? Do you want a drink, do you want some water?’ and I threw him a bottle. I told him, ‘Here, take a drink and go’. A few minutes later he scored a beautiful goal.”

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Don’t go changing, Jose, don’t go changing.