Zlatan Ibrahimovic surprised his fans after the Swedish international showed his emotional and soft side to the fans while talking about time spent with his friend Thijs Slegers, who is suffering from acute leukemia. Zlatan couldn’t hold his tears while talking about him while Slegers also got emotional and had tears in his eyes.
Thijs Slegers is a Dutch Journalist who worked as Press Affairs Manager for the Dutch club PSV Eindhoven and has also worked as Club Watcher for PSV while working for De Telegraaf. Slegers and Ibrahimovic met while Zlatan was still very young during his Ajax days.
The former PSG player defined Slegers as one of the only few friends he had during his time in the Netherlands. He talked about how Slegers supported him when he was young while all the other journalists were busy making stories against the striker. He stated that he went out for a meal with Slegers and the duo instantly became good friends.
While speaking on an ESPN broadcast, Zlatan said: “He is my only friend I had from Holland when I was lost, I was young, I was confused, I really didn’t have anybody in Holland. In that time journalists were not my friends, they were my enemies, he reached out and we went out for dinner and became very good friends.”
Een emotionele Zlatan Ibrahimović met prachtige woorden voor Thijs Slegers❤️
— ESPN NL (@ESPNnl) February 13, 2023
Zlatan further stated that he had even mentioned in his book ‘I Am Zlatan Ibrahimovic’ as he was an important part of his journey toward becoming one of the best. He talked about how grateful he was for everything Slegers did for him. The news of Sleger’s disease seemingly has broken Zlatan who couldn’t control his tears while talking about him.
He said: “He helped me a lot, gave me all the support I needed. I even wrote about Thijs in my book, I was very thankful for everything and we still keep in contact and he went straight in my heart from that moment. I only want to say that I love you my friend”
Zlatan Ibrahimovic has a very enigmatic rough personality in front of the media but the fans have been left stunned after getting to witness such an emotional side of the player.
Fans react to Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s heartfelt message to Thijs Slegers
Fans couldn’t stop talking about the incident of Zlatan with tears in his eyes, we took a look at some of the reactions by fans:
A fan was full of appreciation and love for Zlatan as they were happy after seeing the compassionate side of Zlatan who has previously known for his egoistic behavior in front of the media and fans.
They wrote: “I really love seeing the person side of zlatan”.
Another fan pointed out that Zlatan isn’t as egoistic as he seems and he has been spoken well off by several of his previous teammates who played with him at Manchester United and defined him as a fun person to be around with.
They wrote: “Some of the United players that are still there said he was an incredibly nice person to be around.”
We noticed a fan who believed that Zlatan’s egoistic image in front of the public is just for the sake of portraying his image like that of Chuck Norris while he is a very compassionate and nice human being in real life.
They wrote: ”Yeah he seemed like a very level-headed and loyal guy. Especially the older he’s gotten. The whole inflated ego and comments he makes are mostly in jest and part of a character he portrays. Kinda like the chuck norris memes”
It seems that the fans can’t get over this incident where Zlatan showed his emotional side after being known as a rude, egoistic player for his entire career.