Zlatan Ibrahimovic says Fabio Capello taught him to demand respect and become a superstar

ROME: When Zlatan Ibrahimovic walked into a Serie A locker room for the first time at age 22 and saw the likes of Alessandro Del Piero, David Trezeguet and Gianluigi Buffon staring at him, he acknowledges that it felt like a “fantasy world.”
The retired Sweden superstar, now an adviser at AC Milan after also playing for the Rossoneri over two different spells as well as city rival Inter Milan, credited the Italian league with shaping him into one of the world’s top strikers during an entertaining on-stage discussion at this week’s European Football Clubs assembly.
“When I came to Italy, it was the biggest competition in the world, and all the big players were playing there. I was young. I didn’t have a lot of respect, to be honest, because I wanted to prove myself,” Ibrahimovic said.
“But the first time I came to Juventus was a little bit fantasy world for me because I came from Ajax.

I came in a locker room to Juventus where I saw (Lilian) Thuram, Buffon, (Fabio) Cannavaro, Del Piero, Trezeguet. All these big stars and I was like one week before I used to play PlayStation with these guys. One week later I was with them in the locker room.”
‘I became an animal’
Ibrahimovic first encountered Fabio Capello, who had been named Juventus coach before his transfer in 2004, at the Bianconeri breakfast table.
Capello was reading the Gazzetta dello Sport, Ibrahimovic recalled.
“I was like, ‘Good morning, mister.’ He didn’t react, and I said (to myself), ‘Oh.

I said the wrong word now.’ But I let it go. I waited five, 10 minutes. He just put the paper down and walked out.