Romelu Lukaku and Zlatan Ibrahimovic didn’t play alongside each other much at Manchester United.
Lukaku moved to United in July 2017 and Ibrahimovic made just seven appearances for the club in the 2017/18 season, meaning that the pair’s experience with one another was largely limited to training.
But Ibrahimovic clearly left his mark on his fellow centre-forward at Carrington as Lukaku has admitted that his entire mindset was changed by one challenge from the Swedish striker in training.
“Everything I learned from Zlatan was great, from his stories that he told me when he was at Inter, AC Milan, Barcelona and even Ajax, to being on the field working with him, seeing how competitive he was,” Lukaku told United’s official website.
“I remember one training session – because we were both strikers, we were never on the same team – there was a 50/50 challenge. He went full-on against me!
“That is when I knew this guy wants to compete and this guy wants to fight for his spot. That is why he changed me. It was an eye-opener. The guy had to fight to be in the position he is in.
“So, I learned just to focus, work hard and enjoy it as well. Because he is a guy who you can have a lot fun with as well and having his personality in the dressing room was good.”
Lukaku is enjoying something of a renaissance under caretaker United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer while Ibrahimovic is currently plying his trade for Los Angeles Galaxy, the MLS side for whom he was named new captain ahead of the 2019 season.
