Rome (AFP)

"I'm not here to make the mascot". We already know what Zlatan Ibrahimovic does not want to do at AC Milan, but the age of the Swedish striker and his last two seasons in the United States raise some doubts about his ability to recover a team in the doldrums .

"I'm waiting for everyone in San Siro to blow you up again, like before"; "I'm no longer 28 but instead of running, I can still hit 40 yards." As expected, the first press conference of "Zlatan" on Friday was animated by his sense of formula and his self-confidence.

None of his new teammates could speak like that without looking perfectly ridiculous and this is one of the reasons that pushed the Milanese leaders to bring back "Ibra" after a first successful rossonero stay between 2010 and 2012.

The Swede is there to bring character and personality to a team that is in dire need of it and is dragging into 11th place before receiving the Sampdoria Genoa on Monday.

This part of the mission will be accomplished for sure by the giant, who will also bring his sense of purpose, intact, to an attack that was hard to see in the first part of the season with only 16 goals scored in 17 days.

But for the rest ? After serious knee injury in 2017 with Manchester United and two seasons to be defeated without great danger on the lawns of the North American championship, MLS, Ibra, 38, still has the physical condition to have an impact in Serie A?

- Low Milan -

The former Parisian himself made it clear, with punchlines, what he thought of the American championship: "MLS is not at the level of Europe. I am like a Ferrari in the middle of Fiat" , he said, adding shortly before the end of his contract with Los Angeles that once he left, "everyone would forget what MLS is".

In Italy, the Swede will find defenders who, technically and tactically, evolve on another planet than those of MLS, and who will have the weapons to make him pay for his age. But Stefano Pioli, the Milan coach, is not worried.

"He knows how to do everything. He can score, have his teammates marked, he can move around the area and he will be the benchmark of our attacking sector," he said in an interview with Corriere della Sera.

It will be necessary, because if Ibra is no longer the same, neither is Milan. The team left in 2012 was that of Gattuso, Inzaghi, Pato, Zambrotta, Seedorf or Thiago Silva. The one he joins is perhaps the weakest with which he has evolved in Europe, apart from his beginnings in Malmö.

- Wide shoulders -

The club has in any case heavily communicated on the arrival of Zlatan, which has aroused real enthusiasm since the supporters will be close to 60,000 Monday at San Siro to see his possible start against Sampdoria.

The recruitment of the former Mancunian also allowed the management to forget for a time a sports policy that had been difficult to read for years, with a litany of dismissed coaches (Inzaghi, Seedorf, Mihajlovic, Gattuso, Giampaolo, Brocchi, Montella ...). .) and failed or doubtful transfers (Bonucci, Piatek, Higuain, Calhanoglu, Rodriguez, Leao ...).

During the presentation of Ibrahimovic, Zvonimir Boban, who became club leader in June 2019, still admitted that the transfer of the Swede did not settle everything.

"I would not want us to forget Bergamo and this horrible and unacceptable defeat (5-0 against Atalanta, just before the break, editor's note). We must not hide behind Zlatan's broad shoulders," said the Croatian.

On these famous shoulders, Ibrahimovic chose to wear the N.21 jersey. Twenty-one, like the number of points that separate AC Milan from the two leaders, Juventus and Inter Milan.

© 2020 AFP