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Joey Barton sends Zlatan Ibrahimovic cheeky message after retirement announcement

Home> Football

Updated 17:50 5 Jun 2023 GMT+1Published 17:51 5 Jun 2023 GMT+1

Joey Barton sends Zlatan Ibrahimovic cheeky message after retirement announcement

Joey Barton has sent striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic a cheeky message after the football legend announced his retirement.

Dan Hargraves

Dan Hargraves

Joey Barton has sent Zlatan Ibrahimovic a message of congratulations after the striker announced his retirement from football. However, how sincere the message actually is is up for debate.

Back in 2013, the Englishman was caught on camera when playing for Marseille making a gesture towards Ibrahimovic, who was playing for Paris Saint-Germain, indicating that the Swede had a large nose.

The former midfielder explained the context of the gesture years later, saying: “Ibra didn’t like it because things weren’t going his way and he told me, in no uncertain terms, I think he called me an ‘English p***y’, which is one of the nicer things I’ve been called.

“So, I said to him ‘stop fouling me, don’t put your hands on me then the ref won’t give a foul’.

“And he’s saying, ‘ah, you’re meant to be a strong man, stay on your feet’.

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“I’m like, ‘well, I’m not going to stay on my feet if you’re fouling me.

“So, I think he was calling me something else derogatory - I don’t think I can say it on the camera - and I started laughing.

“And I said, ‘yeah, yeah, I am. I might be a p***y but you’ve got a very big nose. A very, very big nose’.

“He said something back, then I made the gesture which was caught by the cameras - and this is the meme that goes around every time anything is said by me about Ibra.”

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Now, the 40-year-old has taken to Twitter to suggest all is okay between the two, posting the incident as a GIF with the caption: "Congratulations on a fantastic career. Enjoy retirement @Ibra_official #bignose."

Barton retired from playing back in 2017 and has since managed Fleetwood Town and is currently manager at Bristol Rovers.

Meanwhile, Ibrahimovic announced his retirement at the age of 41, having played just four times for current side AC Milan this season after recovering from a serious knee injury.

Featured Image Credit: AC Milan, Bristol Rovers, Ligue 1

Topics: Joey Barton, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Football

Dan Hargraves
Dan Hargraves

Dan is a freelance sports journalist currently in his final year studying Football Journalism at the University of Derby. Currently working for SPORTBible and Reach PLC, he has also worked for Snack Media amongst others. His proudest work thus far came at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games where he was a live blogger for the Commonwealth Games Federation, providing sports coverage on the tournament's official website to over a billion people.

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@danjhargraves

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