The Best Bargain Transfers of All Time: Part Four

Posted by Rob Shepherd on Thursday, April 20, 2017

In the 4th in our series on football’s best transfer bargains we continue our look at the best buys in football. Spending big doesn’t guarantee results, would you choose a youngster for pennies or an ageing striker with plenty of gas left in the tank? If they are good value, you’ll find them here.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic, 2016, Manchester United – Free

At Manchester United, there have been many false dawns when it came to superstars. In recent years, players such as Angel di Maria (bought for 45.7m), Wilfred Zaha (bought for 12m), Bebe (bought for 7.4m), Anderson (bought for 26m), Juan Sebastian Veron (28.1m) and Radamel Falcao (loan deal £6m cost + £250,000 weekly wage) have all struggled to impose themselves at Old Trafford.

So, when Zlatan finally ended what seemed like months (or years) of speculation and announced he would be joining United, I will admit, I was expecting another has been who was looking for one last payday before retiring to the warmth of the American leagues.

However, the Chuck Norris of football has made me eat humble pie! The big man with an even bigger ego has produced some simply stunning football in his first season in the Premier League and the only regret with many fans of the club is that he wasn’t signed up five years earlier.

1996, Malmö FF – Free (Youngster)

The young Zlatan started playing football at the tender age of six, playing for Malmö BI and FBK Balkan. He signed for his hometown club Malmö in 1996 and in 1999 he was promoted to the first team.

We are all familiar with how Arsène Wenger has allegedly tried to sign every player on the planet but with Zlatan he really did! Arsène asked seventeen-year-old Zlatan to take part in a trial to which Ibrahimovic famously replied “Zlatan doesn’t do auditions”.

In his Malmö career, Zlatan would score 16 goals in 40 appearances.

2001, Ajax – £6,850,000

Many of the top clubs were starting to take notice of Zlatan’s goal scoring exploits but it would be the Dutch team, Ajax that paid nearly seven million for his services in 2001.

Life at Ajax got off to a slow start for Zlatan with manager Co Adriaanse (Jacobus Adriaanse) rarely playing the Swede. A run of bad results and the tendency of Adriaanse to make controversial statements (calling the chairman of Ajax a “talking lightshade” and his criticism of Marco Van Bastan who was considering a move to the coaching team at Ajax, saying “A good horse does not make a good rider”) saw Adriaanse replaced by Ronald Koeman.

Ronald Koeman wasted no time restoring Zlatan to the starting line-up, this year Ajax would win the 2001–02 Eredivisie title. Check out this Zlatan beauty, this George Best-esque stunner shows the composure and confidence that would become an Ibrahimovic trademark for many years.

In his Champions League debut on 17th September 2002, he scored two goals in Ajax’s 2–1 victory over French champions Lyon. Ajax would get to the quarter-finals this year with Zlatan chipping in with five goals.

In 2004, things took a turn for the worse for Zlatan, he was accused of intentionally hurting club team mate, Rafael van der Vaart when they played each other in an international fixture. This led to Zlatan being sold to Juventus, the transfer was completed on 31st August 2004.

In three years at Ajax, Zlatan scored 48 goals.

2004, Juventus – £12,600,000

In his first season with Juventus, Zlatan scored 16 goals. With leading scorer David Trezeguet out with injury, Ibrahimovic was given a chance to shine. This year also saw Zlatan awarded the Guldbollen (Swedish Footballer of the Year), it was an award he would become used to owning.

Due to tactical requirements, Zlatan was deployed as a target man in the next season and his goal tally suffered due to this. This different approach in play did however make his all-round play better and his assists tally shot up.

Juventus were involved in a match fixing scandal and as a result, Juventus were relegated to Serie B. Despite Juventus’s desire for him to stay at the club, Zlatan and his agent threatened legal action and demanded that Ibrahimovic should be released from his contract.

In 70 games, he scored 23 goals.

2006, Inter Milan – £19,500,000

On the 10th August 2006, Zlatan joined the team he had supported as a boy, Internazionale.

Zlatan made a good start to his Inter career, scoring on his Serie A debut against Fiorentina. He would continue this good form and ended up as Inter’s top scorer with 15 goals. His goals contributed to Inter winning the league with a record 97 points.

In 2007, Zlatan would sign a new contract with Inter, this new contract made him the highest earning footballer in the world. In his second season, he scored 17 goals in 26 matches as Inter retained the league title. His great form saw Zlatan receive both the Serie A Footballer of the Year and Serie A Foreign Footballer of the Year awards.

This feat was repeated the following year when he became the leading scorer in Serie A with 25 goals and yet again, Inter romped home domestically.

In 88 games, he scored 57 goals.

2009, Barcelona – £57,000,000 (including Samuel Eto)

Even though Zlatan had a fractured hand when he had his Barcelona medical, it wasn’t deemed serious enough to prevent the transfer. It is also worth noting that Barcelona was also willing to part with highly rated Samuel Eto to get their man (Eto would be transferred from Inter to Russian club Anzhi for 27 million Euros).

On 20th October 2009, Zlatan made his Barcelona debut and assisted a goal for Lionel Messi. In his third appearance for the club he would score his first goal in Barca colours, in the first league game of the season in which Barcelona would win 3-0.

The goals didn’t stop there and Zlatan went on to score in the next four games making him the very first player to score in his first five league games. Against Rubin Kazan he scored his first Champions League goal for Barcelona and just five days later he hit two in a 6-1 thumping of Real Zaragoza. A few niggling injuries kept Zlatan out of the team but he after 15 games he saw a return of 11 goals and 4 assists.

Off the field, Zlatan’s relationship with manager Pep Guardiola was almost reaching breaking point and in Zlatan’s autobiography he holds no punches in his scathing attack on Pep. Even this year, Zlatan said about Pep;

“The problem wasn’t with me, it was with him, and he never came to terms with it. I don’t know what his problem was with me.

“It is something that drives me, gives me adrenaline and extra motivation. It is normal after what has happened. I’m using it as a positive, not negative.”

Unhappy with being asked to contribute more to the team and a clash of egos, it was only a matter of time until the sultry Swede was seeking pastures new.

In 46 games for Barcelona, he scored 22 goals.

2010, Milan – 30m Euros (including £6 million loan fee)

Once again, Zlatan was on the move and he joined Ac Milan initially on a one-year loan deal with the option to purchase Zlatan at the end of the loan for £34 Euros.

About the move, Zlatan said, “This move gives me more adrenaline. I have moved here to win the Champions League with Milan. I want to win the double.”

At Milan, Zlatan continued in rich goal scoring form. In 21 matches he had scored 13 goals but also continued in his playmaker role by providing 8 assists. The Milan fans took Zlatan into their hearts and made favourable comparisons to Dutch legend, Marco Van Basten.

Despite his excellent all-round play, Zlatan’s temperament is one area that lets Ibrahimović down. In 2011, against Bari, Zlatan was banned for three games after punching an opponent. This was followed the next year in which he received another ban, this time for swearing at the assistant referee.

If the first season at AC Milan was good, the next season Ibrahimović was on fire.

In the first game of the season a Zlatan goal helped Milan come back from a goal down to claim the 2011 Supercoppa Italiana 2-1 against bitter rivals Inter.

He continued the consistent goal scoring form by netting in the 2-2 draw against Lazio. Zlatan was also in fine form in the Champions League with goals against Viktoria Plzeň, BATE Borisov as well as scoring against former club Barcelona.

At the end of the season Zlatan finished as the league’s top scorer with an amazing 28 goals in 32 matches.

In 85 appearances, he scored 56 goals.

2012, Paris Saint-Germain – 20m Euros

It didn’t take long for PSG fans to see what they were getting for their money when in Zlatan’s first game he scored two to salvage a 2-2 draw against Lorient.

The Swedish serial scorer managed to find the back of the net an amazing six times in only five appearances, Zlatan was on fire. In December, he helped himself to a hat-trick against Valenciennes. Despite being knocked out on away goals to Barcelona in the Champions League, Zlatan once again managed to score against his former employees. As testament to his all-round play, not just his goal scoring ability, Zlatan ended the season as the assists leader in the 2012–13 Champions League, providing seven assists.

Paris Saint-Germain won the title in Ibrahimović’s first season, it was the first time they had won the league title since 1994. Zlatan’s input was immense and finished the league campaign with 30 goals, being the first player since 1989-90 season to hit 30 goals in a season. Not surprisingly, he was awarded the Player of the Year title.

In true Zlatan style, he was just getting started. In the 2013-2014 season, the goals just kept coming. In October, he scored twice against Benfica in the Champions League and only a few week later he would score what would later be named goal of the season with an audacious scorpion kick back heel. Just four days later, Zlatan would score four goals in a 5-0 win over RSC Anderlecht.

Once again Zlatan was the league’s top scorer with 26 goals, he also retained the Player of the Year award and his total goal tally was a remarkable 41 goals. The 2014 season saw no slowing down of the talismanic striker, he scored two goals in the first competitive game of the season to help PSG win another Trophée des Champions. In his first league game of the season, Zlatan scored two but also missed a penalty as well as squandering a chance even my gran could have put away.

Controversy and Zlatan are good roommates and they are rarely parted, Ibrahimović received a straight red card in a Champions League round of 16 match against Chelsea. But as always with Zlatan, after indiscipline comes pure quality and just days after his red card he scored a hat trick in the 3-0 victory over Lorient.

As Zlatan entered the final year of his PSG contract it would be easy to assume that he was going to take things easier, time after all, catches up with all of us in the end. But you write off Zlatan at your peril and in October 2015, Ibrahimović became PSG’s all-time leading scorer with 110 goals.

In December, another two goals in a league game meant that Zlatan also became the club’s all-time top goal scorer in the French first division.

In the second leg of PSG’s Champions League tie with Chelsea, Zlatan scored one and assisted one as they went through with a 4-2 aggregate score line.

On the 13th March, he scored four times in a 9–0 win at bottom team Troyes, a win that confirmed PSG as league champs yet again. He also announced that he would be leaving PSG at the end of the season. Always modest, Zlatan proclaimed, “I came like a king, left like a legend”. He did however say he would stay on one condition, that they replace the Eiffel Tower with a statue of him!

In 117 league starts, Zlatan scored 113 goals. His overall record for PSG, An incredible 157 games and 149 goals.

2016, Manchester United – Free

The next destination of the self-proclaimed “God of Football” was a story that would rumble on for months in the football gossip columns and the beer based banter of pubs. However, it wasn’t that surprising when he chose Manchester United. United needed characters and you don’t get many bigger personalities than Zlatan.

On the 1st July 2016, Zlatan signed a one-year deal to join the Red Devils. The deal had an option for a second year. Wages are believed to be £200,000 per week (£10.4 million for the year).

In the traditional curtain raiser to the English domestic league, the Charity Shield, Zlatan scored the winning goal. He would repeat his goal scoring antics by hitting a long range shot against Bournemouth in his league debut for the club.

In his home debut at Old Trafford, Ibrahimović went one better and scored two goals in a 2-0 win against Southampton. In November, Zlatan secured a place in Premier League history when he scored against Swansea City, his goal was the 25,000th goal ever scored in the Premier League.

In February of this year, Ibrahimović at 35 years and 125 days, became the oldest player to score 15 goals in a Premier League season.

Swapping the Champions League for the Europa League surprised a lot of people but if you needed any evidence of the supreme self-belief Zlatan has in his ability, his reply when asked about playing in the Europa League? “The Europa League IS the Champions League when I’m in it!”.

One thing Zlatan did bring to the team was his combative nature and was on several occasions highlighted in the press for “naughty” challenges, often involving an elbow.

It was such a challenge that would see Zlatan receive a retrospective ban for an elbow on Bournemouth defender Tyrone Mings. A few minutes earlier in the game, Mings appeared to stamp on Ibrahimović (he also would receive a retrospective ban for the stamp). A few minutes later, it looked as if the Swede dished out his own dish of revenge when he swung an elbow into Mings.

Zlatan said of the incident, “You can see the TV and the images,” he said. “In my situation, I jump up, I jump high, at the same time I protect myself and it’s unlucky he jumps into my elbow.”

“On many occasions these things happen and I hope he didn’t get injured. What happens on the field stays on the field, I’m not a player who will talk afterwards or attack somebody.”

On his FA Cup debut, predictably Zlatan scored the winner. After coming on as a 62nd minute sub. The next week he would be playing in the 2017 EFL Cup Final. Yet again, Zlatan produced the goods and scored the winning goal.

In a season that was plagued by draws in games in which Manchester United had dominated, Zlatan shone brightly. In 46 games, Zlatan scored 28 goals putting him with the top scorers in England.

The End for Zlatan?

Zlatan was delaying signing the one-year extension to his United career, this indecision could be a costly one as a cruciate knee-ligament injury may well spell the end of Ibrahimović’s career.

In the final minute of the Europa League quarter-final second-leg win over Anderlecht, Zlatan fell awkwardly and you could tell by the reaction of Zlatan that it was serious. Early indications suggest that he could be looking at a nine-month lay-off. At 36, could he come back? Zlatan seems to think so;

“I will go through this like everything else and come back even stronger. So far, I played with one leg so it shouldn’t be any problem.

“One thing is for sure, I decide when it’s time to stop and nothing else.”

It’s fair to say that Zlatan has been doubted before and he has proved his detractors wrong.

At 35 years old, scoring 28 goals in just 46 games in his first season in English football shows Zlatan’s undeniable quality. The price of “free”, makes Zlatan perfect for this page. A Rolls Royce of a player at a Ford Cortina price tag. 7 different clubs. 16 seasons. 13 league titles and numerous trophies, Zlatan is a living legend.