Reports emerging from France claim that 21 year old French midfielder Adrien Rabiot was involved in a heated exchange of words with Swedish star Zlatan Ibrahimovic during a training session in Paris.
French sports newspaper L’Equipe claims that Rabiot and Zlatan were insulting and abusing each other during the training session at Camp des Loges. This was their first training session since the victory at Lille as the PSG stars returned from an extended weekend trip to Las Vegas.
The incident started with Rabiot teasing the tall swede about something. Zlatan was in no mood to be bantered with, and there soon ensued a heated trading of insults and gestures. Captain Thiago Silva had to intevene thrice to stop the incident from escalating into a physical exchange of blows.
Zlatan: No stranger to training ground feuds
Ibrahimovic has perhaps had more training ground disputes than any other player in recent history. Ever since his days at Ajax, he has courted controversy after teammate Rafael van der Vaart publicly accused him of deliberately injuring him at a practice match. The Egyptian Mido was also on the receiving end of the great Swede’s wrath in the locker room.
From threatening to beat up Pep Guardiola to kicking Milan youngster Rodney Strasser, Zlatan has done it all. During his time at Milan, he kicked teammate Antonio Cassano during an interview. But it was more of a friendly feud, with Cassano laughing it off.
Last year, during PSG’s pre-season match with Chelsea, there was another verbal spat with youngster Rabiot on the field after Zlatan lost the ball away rather cheaply. Rabiot later denied reports of it being a serious infraction of conduct by saying, “With Ibra, we got a little bit heated on the field but we spoke about it in the dressing room. We put everything back in order, there were no worries. These things happen on the field. We laughed about it.” (via ESPNFC)
With PSG crashing out of the Champions League in a rather unceremonious fashion with Zlatan missing a flurry of opportunities, it would seem that all is not well in the French capital. Zlatan is nearing the end of his career and perhaps will look for a move to China or the MLS.
