Zlatan Ibrahimovic is returning to Serie A, rejoining AC Milan after eight years away.
The Italian club confirmed the move on Twitter on Friday, saying the sides have agreed upon a contract through the end of the 2019-20 season with an option to extend it to the next season.
It’s about time for the second half of the European club season, and you know what that means — it’s time to burn all the “Cristiano Ronaldo Is Finished” takes from September/October for the fourth straight year.
Serie A has a racism problem. Anyone who has followed the league for any amount of time knows it, with two high-profile instances this year alone with black footballers subjected to monkey noises.
Serie A launched an anti-racism campaign this week to try to fix its image as a backwards league that discriminates against non-white footballers.
Inter Milan is the best team in Italy through 15 Serie A matches.
And the Nerazzurri are now headed to the Europa League.
Barcelona’s B team, with Lionel Messi not even bothering to suit up, beat Inter 2-1 on Tuesday at the San Siro behind a late winner from record-setting 17-year-old Ansu Fati. The defeat consigned the Serie A leaders to the Europa League knockout stage.
It was hailed as a cruel slam by Oh My Goal; The Sun called it a dig; The World Game went further and called it a cheeky dig; SPORTbible proclaimed it a Face with Tear of Joy emoji masterpiece; Piers Morgan jumped on the social media bandwagon; Cristiano Ronaldo’s sister tipped over the wagon and set it on fire in defense of her dear brother.
The footballing populace hasn’t been this charged and incited into Twitter fervor since Megan Rapinoe proposed the outlandish idea of taking it upon ourselves to make the world a better place.
So what happened?
According to The Telegraph’s Mike McGrath, Zlatan Ibrahimović has agreed to join AC Milan, putting an end to a month of speculation surrounding the 38-year-old striker following the expiration of his contract with the LA Galaxy.
When Cristiano Ronaldo joined Juventus, he immediately became the team’s No. 1 free-kick taker, despite the fact the Old Lady already had a couple world-class free kick takers.
Ronaldo has proven himself to be one of the best at spot kicks, but the numbers show he hasn’t brought that prowess with him to Italy.
After a disastrous 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign that ended with a playoff defeat to Sweden and the firing of manager Gian Piero Ventura, Italy’s just finished its UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying cycle in emphatic fashion: A 9-1 victory over Armenia gives the Azzurri a final record of 10 played, 10 won, 37 scored and only four conceded.
In the 1885-86 Scottish Cup, Arbroath defeated Bon Accord 36-0. In the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, the USWNT beat Thailand 13-0. In the 2019 NCAA Women's College Cup, Stanford beat Prairie View A&M 15-0. Throughout the course of history, the trend of scoring an excessive amount of goals has continued to receive backlash from all levels.
It was always going to happen eventually — it’s just that nobody could’ve predicted how insanely long it’d take for age and the grind of professional sports to somewhat catch up to Cristiano Ronaldo. The 34-year-old has played 982 matches for club and country over the last 17 years, and although he remains decisive, indomitable and a catalyst for one of the world’s best teams, he’s beginning to show signs of what Louis C.K. referred to as “incurable shitty ankle.”