- Zlatan Ibrahimovic was a guest on CBS Sports’ Serie A coverage on Saturday
- He joked with his fellow pundits before AC Milan’s 2-1 defeat against Parma
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On Saturday, Zlatan Ibrahimovic took a brutal dig at CBS Sports presenters, asking where Champions League presenters Thierry Henry, Kate Abdo and Micah Richards were while appearing on the broadcaster’s Serie A show.
The legendary Swedish striker was a guest on the show ahead of AC Milan’s shock 2-1 Serie A defeat to Parma.
The 42-year-old was joined by Italian football legend Fabio Cannavaro, former Leeds star Mike Grella and presenters Poppy Miller and Mike Messina.
But in true Ibrahimovic style, the former Milan star joked to the presenters that they “have to have the best team” in terms of commentary if they were going to ask him to be on the show.
“Thanks for having me,” he told CBS Sports. “But I thought, where’s the real studio with (Thierry) Henry, Kate (Abdo) and Micah (Richards)?
Zlatan Ibrahimovic (third from left) joked with his fellow pundits on CBS Sports on Saturday
The former AC Milan star jokingly asked where Champions League presenters Kate Abdo (left), Thierry Henry (second from left) and Micah Richards (right) were.
‘Let’s go home! If you let me in, you have to take me to the A boys!’
His comments were well received by the other presenters, who laughed at the jibe before the former Milan striker added: “Don’t worry, don’t worry, I’m going to raise the level!”
Richards, Abdo, Henry and Jamie Carragher all appear on CBS’s Champions League coverage, and the quartet have become one of the game’s best presenting line-ups, thanks to their brilliant analysis and humour on the show.
Cannavaro then asked Zlatan about how he adapted to life in Serie A when he joined Juventus from Ajax in 2004.
And the Swede, who scored 26 goals in 92 appearances for Juve before leaving for Inter Milan in 2006, did not hold back once again.
“It was different,” he began. “Because when I first walked into the locker room I saw these guys next to me and a bunch of other guys. It was like playing PlayStation.”
Ibrahimovic (left) also joked with former teammate Fabio Cannavaro (right) on the show.
Cannavaro joked that he let the striker mark him in training because he wanted to “boost his confidence”
The Swedish international would join some illustrious names at Juventus including Gianluigi Buffon, Alessandro Del Piero and Pavel Nedved.
“The day before I was playing PlayStation with these guys and the next day I was playing football with them,” he added.
“But after three months, they were playing with me on the PlayStation,” he joked again, prompting a chorus of laughter from the team of experts.
Cannavaro then went on to talk about training with Ibrahimovic, with the former Juventus defender joking that he always let his former teammate score against him in training.
“He always scored goals for me in training. Of course I had to give him confidence!” joked Cannavaro.
Meanwhile, AC Milan have endured a difficult start to the new Serie A season, having drawn their opening game against Torino 1-1 last week.
Ibrahimovic was introduced by the commentary team and said: ‘If I’m included, I should be taken with the A boys!’
AC Milan have had a slow start to their 2024-25 Serie A campaign and suffered a 2-1 defeat against Parma.
On Saturday they suffered another defeat away to Parma, with Dennis Man opening the scoring for the home side after just two minutes.
Christian Pulisic would close the gap for Paulo Fonseca’s side, but substitute Matteo Cancellieri would seal the victory for Parma in the 77th minute of the match, finishing off a cross from Pontus Almqvist.