Zlatan: 'Sent Materazzi to hospital'
Zlatan Ibrahimovic said he "waited four years” to get his “revenge” by sending Inter defender Marco Materazzi to hospital during a Milan-Inter derby.
After being treated roughly by Materazzi whilst at Juventus, Zlatan never forgot about the incident and revealed how he got his revenge in an interview with GQ.
I was at Juve and we played against Inter,” is how Zlatan started the story in the interview with GQ. “Materazzi entered a challenge like an assassin and hurt me. He was a tough football player, that’s OK.
“But there’s two ways to be tough, one of them is aiming to hurt you. Even [Paolo] Maldini was tough, but with a different objective.
“It was Juventus-Inter in 2006 and after the foul I had to leave the pitch for a moment and [coach Fabio] Capello said, ‘I’ll substitute you’. I said, ‘no, I’ll go on.’
“I wanted to return to the pitch to get my revenge on Matrix. If someone does that too me, I won’t forget about it. But after two minutes, I’m in too much pain to go on. I can’t play. Then I go to Inter, Barcelona, Milan…
“In the first game, the 2010-11 derby, they were all against me. OK, this motivates me. But, if you don’t have any control, it’s not good. You’ll lose your head and do something stupid. I got a penalty, and who fouled me? Materazzi. 1-0 Milan.
“In the second half, Matrix is coming at me and I hit him with a Taekwondo move, I sent him to the hospital. [Dejan] Stankovic asked me; ‘Why did you do that?’ And I replied to him: ‘I have been waiting for this moment for four years. That’s why.’
“Then I left. What goes around comes around. Milan won and it was a good moment, because the old club was great.”
The Swedish superstar will reveal his next destination mid-December, after confirming his time at LA Galaxy in the MLS is over, and he has reportedly agreed to return to the Rossoneri.