Zlatan Ibrahimovic believes Erling Haaland's potential at Manchester City will depend on Pep Guardiola's ego.
Ibrahimovic and Guardiola famously didn't see eye-to-eye when the Swedish striker was at Barcelona under Guardiola's management, and has not been shy in criticising Guardiola in the years since. Plenty of comparisons have been made between Ibrahimovic and Haaland due to their confident personalities and similar playing styles.
Haaland has 22 goals for City already and has impressed Ibrahimovic, who told Canal+ that the 22-year-old reminds him of three European greats. However, Ibrahimovic warned Haaland that his progress could be limited if he becomes 'bigger' than his manager.
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"I like Haaland very much, he’s a very intelligent player," Ibrahimovic said.
"He doesn’t do things that aren’t within his reach, he doesn’t drop deep to play the ball, he waits in front of the goal and scores. He reminds me of players like [Filippo] Inzaghi, [David] Trezeguet and [Christian] Vieri. He is a sort of ‘new version’ of all three."
But when asked if Haaland can keep improving under Guardiola, Ibrahimovic struck a different tone, saying the City manager's ego could prevent Haaland from improving, like it did with Ibrahimovic and 'many others'.
Ibrahimovic said: "It depends on Guardiola’s ego, whether he lets him become bigger than he is or not. Why didn't he allow me to improve? Because it didn't just happen to me, but to many others."
Guardiola could be reunited with Ibrahimovic next year, if the striker recovers from injury in time for the Champions League last-16, and City draw AC Milan when the pairings are decided on Monday.
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