Zlatan Ibrahimovic joked with CBS Sports presenters on Saturday asking where Champions League hosts Thierry Henry, Kate Abdo and Micah Richards were, as he appeared on the broadcaster’s Serie A show.
The legendary Swedish striker was a guest on the show ahead of AC Milan’s shock 2-1 Serie A defeat against Parma.
The 42-year-old joined Italian football legend Fabio Cannavaro, Mike Grella, former Leeds star Mike Grella and presenters Poppy Miller and Mike Messina.
But in typical Ibrahimovic fashion, the former Milan star joked with the presenters claiming that they ‘have to have the A-team’ on punditry if they were going to ask him to be on the show.
‘Thank you for having me,’ he said to CBS Sports. ‘But I thought, where’s the real studio with [Thierry] Henry, Kate [Abdo] and Micah [Richards]?
Zlatan Ibrahimovic (third from left) joked with fellow pundits on CBS Sports on Saturday
The former AC Milan star jokingly asked where Champions Leeague presenters Kate Abdo, Thierry Henry and Micah Richards were
‘Let’s go home! If you bring me in, you have got to bring me to the A-guys!’ he joked.
His comments were well received by the other hosts who laughed off the joke before the former Milan striker added: ‘Don’t worry, don’t worry I’m going to push up the level!’
Richards, Abdo, Henry and Jamie Carragher all appear on CBS’ Champions League coverage, with the quartet having become one of the best presenting line-ups in the game, thanks to their brilliant analysis and humour on the show.
Cannavaro then went on to question Zlatan on how he found adjusting to life in the Serie A when he first joined Juventus from Ajax back in 2004.
And the Sweded, who went on to score 26 goals in 92 appearances for Juve before leaving for Inter Milan in 2006, didn’t hold back again.
‘It was different,’ he began. ‘Because when I went into the locker room for the first time I saw these guys beside me, and many others. It was like playing PlayStation.’
Ibrahimovic (left) joked also joked with former team-mate Fabio Cannavaro (rigtht) on the show
Cannavaro joked that he let the striker score against him in training because he wanted to ‘boost his confidence’
The Sweden international would join some illustrious names at Juventus, including the likes of Gianluigi Buffon, Alessandro Del Piero and Pavel Nedved.
‘The day before I was playing PlayStation with these guys and the next day I was playing with them, football,’ he added.
‘But after three months, they were playing with me PlayStation,’ he joked again, setting off a chorus of laughter among the punditry team.
Cannavaro then went on to speak about training with Ibrahimovic, with the former Juventus defender joking that he would always let his former team-mate score against him in training.
‘Always he scored against me, during training. Of course, I needed to give him the confidence!’ Cannavaro joked.
AC Milan, meanwhile have endured a difficult start to the new Serie A season, having drawn their opening game against Torino 1-1 last week.
Ibrahimovic was introduced by the commentary team and said: ‘If you bring me in, you have got to bring me to the A-guys!’
AC Milan have endured a slow start to their 2024-25 Serie A campaign and suffered a 2-1 defeat against Parma
They returned on Saturday to suffer defeat on the road against Parma, with Dennis Man opening the scoring for the hosts after just two minutes.
Christian Pulisic would pull one back for Paulo Fonseca’s side but substitute Matteo Cancellieri would seal victory for Parma in the 77th minute of the match, tapping in a cross from Pontus Almqvist.