Zlatan Ibrahimovic revealed he considered retiring before signing for AC Milan.
At 39, he returned to the San Siro in hopes of returning Milan to their former glory.
The Swede definitely looks to be on the right path as Milan sit top of the Serie A and he their top scorer with 10 goals in 6 games.
“The first question I got when I came back to Milan was related to all the ex-players who had returned and had not come up to the standards from the first time they were here, they had failure,” Ibrahimovic told UEFA.
“What’s the difference in my case? I answered simply that I have never lost my passion for what I do. Every time I go out on the pitch, I feel like a small kid eating candy for the first time. I understand that the ball is my best friend and I want to be with my best friend for the rest of my life.
“Life is all about challenges. I felt I had done enough and I started thinking about whether to continue or not.
“For me, it was a big challenge to come back here to try to change the mentality, to try to change the situation and to make the players understand what Milan was about. The Milan I know, the Milan that the whole world knows.
Since Ibrahimovic signed for Milan, he has collected 22 goals in 30 games, proving doubters wrong at every step.
The forward continued, “When I play, I bring my character, my personality and obviously my quality onto the pitch. I put a lot of pressure on my team-mates, I try to get the most out of each of them.
“Some take it in a good way, others a little less, some cannot handle it. They find it very hard in the sense that you have to perform when we decide that you perform, and I decided that we have to perform every day. The way you train is the way you play.
“Whether you are young or old I put the same pressure on you because if you are here there is a reason; you are here because you are good enough.
“But off the pitch, if you are young obviously I speak to you differently, I treat you differently, the behaviour is not the same compared to the older ones. But on the field, they are all the same for me.
“I’m never satisfied, I always want more and maybe that’s why I’m here today and I’m able to perform and do what I’m doing.
“I don’t see many players, in the past and in the present, able to perform like I am doing. I consider myself like Benjamin Button, I’m getting younger every day. I need to feel alive, to feel that I am giving something back.”
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