Former Manchester United player, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, has said that he was surprised by the club’s ‘small mentality’, adding that £1 was deducted from his weekly salary because he drank fruit juice from hotel mini bar.
Ibrahimovic, now with AC Milan, said this while narrating how Man United operate on a daily basis in his autobiography entitled Adrenaline.
The Swede International joined Man United in the summer of 2016 from Ligue 1 side Paris Saint-Germain.
His weekly wage at United was around £200,000 .
Writing, the 40-year-old outspoken striker revealed said he was surprised that “one of the richest and most powerful clubs the world” could display such a poor mentality.
“One thing surprised me: everyone thinks of United as a top club, one of the richest and most powerful in the world and seen from the outside it looked that way to me,” he writes.
“But once I was there I found a small, closed mentality.
“One day I was in the hotel with the team before a game. I got thirsty so I opened the mini-bar and had a fruit juice,” he said.
“We played and then went home. Some time went by. My payslip arrives.
“Normally I don’t look at it. I only do so at the end of the year to see what’s come in and what’s gone out. But that time, I don’t know why, I was curious and realised they’d taken a pound off my monthly wage.
“I called the team manager: ‘Excuse me, why have they taken a pound off my salary.’ The team manager had a look and told me: ‘It was the fruit juice from the mini-bar.’ ‘Are you kidding, seriously?’ ‘No, I’m not. Here, if you order something you have to pay for it.’
…’Sure, but I didn’t go to the hotel on my own accord. I wasn’t on holiday. It was my workplace. I was there for Manchester. If I have to play and I’m thirsty, I have to drink. I can’t go on the pitch dehydrated.’
“Can you believe it? A quid? Something like that would never happen in Italy. These are the details that make a difference and earn the respect of the players.
“Every day I was asked to show my papers just to get into the training ground. I’d lower my window and say to the person at the gate: ‘Listen my friend I’ve been coming here every day for a month. I’m the best player in the world. If you still don’t recognise me, you’re in the wrong job.”
