Ibrahimovic: 'Capello said I had better technique than Van Basten'

In Turin, the coaching staff was not immediately impressed with the qualities of the Swedish player who had come from Amsterdam. Ibrahimovic was told that there was still much work to be done on his technique by Fabio Capello. 

'He told me that I had to completely forget about Ajax. He said that I had better technique than Van Basten, but I didn't move well,' the iconic goalscorer recalled.

Capello had seen Van Basten excel in Milan from close quarters, first as an assistant coach and later as the head coach. With Ibrahimovic, the tactician couldn't get the maximum out of his potential. Ibrahimovic said, 'At Juventus, I wanted to show the world who I was, but there was a lack of goals. It was David Trezeguet who kept scoring.'

In an interview with Sky Italia, Capello had previously criticized the shooting technique that Ibrahimovic had been taught at Malmö FF and Ajax. 'When he came to Juventus, he couldn't shoot at all. His agent Mino Raiola said he had a lot of power in his legs. He claimed that he could even break a goalkeeper's hands with his shots. I told him that he had only broken the windows of the fitness room with his shots,' he said.