Zlatan Ibrahimovic misses his Manchester United teammates – who made him feel like Benjamin Button

Ibrahimovic joined United from Paris Saint-Germain in 2016, aged 34, and scored 28 goals in his opening season as they won the Europa League and League Cup

Zlatan Ibrahimovic has opened up on how much he enjoyed his time at Manchester United and admitted he misses his former teammates at Old Trafford.

Ibrahimovic joined United from Paris Saint-Germain in 2016, aged 34, and scored 28 goals in his opening season as they won the Europa League and League Cup.

“I miss all of them,” Ibrahimovic told the BBC. “I had a fantastic time at United. Wazza [Wayne Rooney], Michael Carrick, then the young guys that wanted to show the world who they are by playing football and they had a lot of hunger to show. I had a good time because I got to know everyone, I was the mature guy with all these guys who were not mature.”

During his time in the Premier League, Ibrahimovic struck up a particularly fruitful relationship with Paul Pogba, United’s mercurial midfield talent.

“Paul Pogba, I had never played with him before and I didn’t know him as a person. We have the same management and when I got to know him I got to find a fantastic person and a fantastic footballer, but someone who needs to be guided.

“He is a professional guy that works every game and never misses training or a game. Those are all the things that people do not see, you only get judged by what you can see on television or the 90 minutes in the stadium, that’s where you have to perform. When you click with someone it just clicks. The connection on the field was amazing, we helped each other very well, I needed him and he needed me.

Ibrahimovic suffered a cruciate ligament injury which ruled him out of the final part of his opening season at Old Trafford and which from which he never fully recovered, disrupting his second season and precipitating his move to LA Galaxy, where he has scored 22 goals in 27 appearances.

“The first year at United we had a fantastic year. They made me feel like Benjamin Button. I was getting younger and younger, then unfortunately I got my injury.”

“The Premier League should be happy I did not come 10 years ago because it would’ve been a different story. You see all my numbers [of goals] and all of these numbers would’ve been in the Premier League. I came to the right club in United. It was the club and the shirt that I was supposed to shine in and I did it.

“Everybody thought that I’m too old. But I came, and I made the Premier League look old.”