Ibrahimovic: Cardinale ‘put the right people in charge of Milan’ | OneFootball

RedBird Advisor Zlatan Ibrahimovic insists Gerry Cardinale ‘has put the right people’ in charge of Milan, but clarifies: ‘It’s not a one-man show anymore. I’m not here to save anyone. I’m here to learn from others and help them give their best.’

The former striker was appointed as the RedBird Advisor back in December 2023.

Although he doesn’t have an official role in Milan as a club, Ibra has taken a leading role in the first-team management, including coach choice and transfer decisions.

“I had promised the team at the beginning: you will never see me in a suit and tie. But everything changed quickly. Do I like wearing a suit? No. I admit it. I don’t feel comfortable,” Ibrahimovic told GQ Italia.

“I am an athlete, a sportsman. But whenever I want to dress how I want, Helena [his wife] looks at me and says: ‘Today you have to wear a suit.’ I reply: ‘Why?’ And she says: ‘Because you have a press conference.’ So put on the tie and shut up. Let’s go. But I understand it, too: I’m not dressing to represent who I am today. I’m dressing for the role I have: today I represent Milan, I represent RedBird.”

The Rossoneri sacked Paulo Fonseca in December to hire his compatriot Sergio Conceiçao, but results haven’t improved much as Milan have been eliminated from the Champions League and are eight points below the top four in Serie A.

“Just like on the field, teamwork is the most important thing here too,” continued Ibrahimovic.

“That’s what I told Gerry Cardinale when I agreed to work with him. I told him clearly: ‘It’s not a one-man show anymore. I’m not here to save anyone. If you think that’s the case, let’s drop it right now. I’m not here to save the situation. I’m here to learn from others and help them give their best. Learn. Help. Teamwork.’

“I told Gerry, I’m probably the only person in that office who didn’t go to Harvard. Actually, I come from the streets. He laughed. He says he wants me for that reason too.”

Cardinale, RedBird’s Founder, Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer, clearly played a key role in involving Ibrahimovic in the Milan project.

Ibrahimovic: Cardinale ‘put the right people in charge of Milan’

MILAN, ITALY – SEPTEMBER 03: Gerry Cardinale of AC Milan looks on before the Serie A match between AC Milan and FC Internazionale at Stadio Giuseppe Meazza on September 03, 2022 in Milan, Italy. (Photo by Marco Luzzani/Getty Images)

“When I stopped playing, I was 42 years old. I told myself: Listen, you have to be realistic. You have to accept that you’re not the same as before,” Ibra recalled.

“The biggest problem, the real problem every footballer has, is exactly this: accepting reality and putting ego aside. Understanding that you’ve passed your expiration date. I did it. I accepted it. And that’s how I found my peace. From that moment on, I’ve been calm. And that was the hardest part.

“I wasn’t even looking for something to do. No challenge, nothing. I told myself: Take your time. See what happens. Slow down. Get used to the new life. And after three months, I came to visit the guys here at Milan. I talked to Furlani, the CEO. He liked our conversation and said to me: You should meet Gerry Cardinale. So I met him. We talked. He wanted to know more about me, what I want, who I am. To get to know me better.

“Then he said: ‘I want you in RedBird. Not in Milan. In RedBird. I want you to work with Milan. Bring your experience. Learn the other side of football, the one you don’t see on the field. Finance, numbers, how everything works.’

“Cardinale pushes. He pushes hard. Now I understand why he’s successful: he never gives up,” Ibra added.

“He’s the real Wolf of Wall Street. He always gets what he wants. In the end, he gave me an opportunity I couldn’t refuse. And then my wife also told me: If I know you well, I know that after a while, you’ll get bored. You need a challenge. Go, do what you have to do, and be yourself. And she knows me well. And no, it’s not about the money. Because Milan do not pay me, got it? I’m not a Milan employee. I work for RedBird. But my responsibility is clear: to bring Milan where it belongs. To win.

“Cardinale is very attached to Milan, he wants to succeed. Milan is absolutely central to RedBird’s plans. He wants to bring Milan back to where we deserve to be. In his own way, with his vision, his ambition. And we follow that path. He has put the right people in charge of Milan. And he gives you responsibility, but in return, he wants one simple thing: results.”

Ibrahimovic returned to Milan for a second spell as a footballer in January 2020 and his influence on a young team, on and off the pitch, contributed to the team’s development under Stefano Pioli, who won the Serie A title with the Rossoneri in 2022.

“Milan gave me happiness the first time. And it gave it to me the second time too,” said Zlatan.

“But I’m not doing this for personal gain. I don’t need this. I’m famous, I don’t need money, and I don’t need followers either. I do it for Milan, and because I want to learn new things. When I played, everything revolved around me. Today, I’m the bodyguard: if someone has to take a shot, let it be me. I want to protect the team and the club.

I’m not afraid, because I fire back twice. So I can be the target. I went through ten years of war. And if you live through war in the Balkans, no one calls to ask how you are. You wait for the call, to know what’s happening. To know if your family is okay. Every day, someone calls you crying, and you don’t know if tomorrow they’ll still be alive. And you can’t do anything. If someone has lived like that for ten years, they fear nothing. Because that’s something else. That’s real fear. And when the media talk about me? It doesn’t touch me. For 25 years as a footballer, they attacked me every day. Why? Because I was the best.”

“Milan are the most famous club in Italy. We represent Italian football in the world. DNA, mentality, pedigree,” concluded Ibrahimovic.

“The numbers are clear. Everyone talks about us. And if they talk about us, it means we are doing something great. A new mentality. Our management is young, international. People with different visions, different ambitions: there is hunger. And that is incredible. We are not afraid. This is our strength. We do what we believe in, without fear, without limits, our own way. We don’t look at others. We move forward, always. Any wall in our way? We break it down. And trust me: we are rock and roll. Always aiming for results. We are the new school.”