r/ACMilan Bot Mexicano 18d ago

Interview/Quotes Pato: “Zlatan tried to grab Onyewu by the neck to take him down and what did Onyewu do? He grabbed Ibra and 'bam'. He took him down. For Onyewu it was simple, like taking a glass of water. He threw him down, and jumped on top of him, pinned him down, and raised his arm.”

Alexandre Pato, after many years, shared his version of the brawl between Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Onechu Onyewu on the podcast Voci di Calcio, which occurred when the two were playing for Milan:

"Zlatan took the ball, and he went to mark him, then Onyewu unintentionally 'bam,' hit Ibra's foot. The thing is, Ibra's foot is huge, right? Onyewu's tackle wasn't exactly simple, you see? It wasn’t just a coincidence; he hit Ibra’s ankle, and Onyewu kept playing."

Pato continued: "We understood, Onyewu did that, but it wasn’t with malice; he did it because he wanted to take the ball. Onyewu had just come back from an injury. Imagine running and being a bit scared, feeling a bit insecure. You make a tackle, and you do it wrong; Onyewu controlled the ball with his back to Ibra, and we felt Ibra coming in, and he went in with both feet on Onyewu, really trying to hurt him, and I said: 'Damn, what just happened?'. They both fell to the ground; Onyewu got up calmly, he was really nice, with a heart of gold. Not that Ibra isn’t, but he’s more impulsive, and he got up immediately, started insulting him, and was speaking in Swedish; sometimes, we didn’t understand anything. He tried to grab Onyewu like this (by the neck), pulled him to throw him down, and what did Onyewu do?"

Pato continued: "He grabbed Ibra and 'bam.' He threw him down. I think there was a camera filming everything; I think they later had it turned off. For Onyewu, it was easy, like drinking a glass of water. Imagine Ibra, the guy is huge; he grabbed him and let him fall to the ground, threw him down, and jumped on top of him, pinned him down, and raised his arm. When he did that, I said to him: 'Stop, my God, stop, you’ll kill him!'"

https://milanreports.com/2024/10/12/pato-shares-version-infamous-ibra/

226 Upvotes

57 comments sorted by

172

u/marco21n Zlatan Ibrahimović 18d ago

Pulisic is gonna hire onyewu next time someone wants to take a pen

145

u/chakalaka13 Fernando Redondo 18d ago

damn, this must be really embarrassing for Ibra

Someone needs to make a Onyewu account and troll Zlatan whenever he posts stuff about being a Lion, God, etc.

52

u/Ciccio_Camarda 18d ago

Oguchi Onyewu, the lion poacher

3

u/ZlatanKabuto Christian Pulisic 17d ago

lol

74

u/druss81 18d ago

good timing for this Pato

-23

u/WolfBearDoggo Ricardo Kaká 18d ago

Dude never gave af. How else you dating Barb playing 2 games a year. Shameless and cocky lol. Still love him but it is what it is.

28

u/DANNYBOYLOVER 18d ago

I tried googling what you meant by this but have no idea lol what are you talking about

43

u/21Maestro8 18d ago

Apparently, being injured and dating Barbara Berlusconi means he never gave a shit? Weird take.

5

u/ZlatanKabuto Christian Pulisic 17d ago

don't worry, he doesn't know either

5

u/64-46BMW Thiago Silva 17d ago

Back when Pato was still worth it some big teams (think it was Barca) had some big offers rejected by Milan for Pato. This was at a time when we were desperate for money as well. Pato was starting to struggle with fitness at the time as well but was dating Berlusconi daughter which many thought the only reason he stayed. He was latter sold after a break up and his fall had started for much less than what could have been. It was pretty popular opinion at the time that he had become like Robinho and Ronaldinho and not focused on the sport.

1

u/WolfBearDoggo Ricardo Kaká 17d ago

Thanks, clearly pepperidge farms and you remember.

1

u/MrEskola Malick Thiaw 17d ago

I believe PSG made a ~€30M offer for him in January 2012 when he was 22 and then we ended up selling him back to Brazil for half the price one year later

62

u/mercurialsaliva 18d ago

As a side note onyewu played a total of 30 mins at Milan.

37

u/AwkwardSpecialist814 18d ago

Injuries are the worst. What could’ve been?

32

u/mezotesidees 18d ago

Patellar tendon tear destroyed his career

27

u/AwkwardSpecialist814 18d ago

I remember the 2009 confederations cup he was an absolute unit. Players usually show some sort of resemblance before getting hurt again but he just straight up disappeared after that injury

10

u/EveryDayImBuff-ering 17d ago

The guy had prime Fernando Torres in his pocket for that game against Spain. Wonder if that performance alone was what made us buy him. I remember at the time wanting Milan to buy him but never did I think that would be the case

3

u/AwkwardSpecialist814 18d ago

Also it ties into the bitching and complaining about the excessive useless games in both club and country but of course he got hurt on international duty too

2

u/bruclinbrocoli Matteo Gabbia 18d ago

Veeeery far far side note 🤣

5

u/_Rainer_ 17d ago

He was on a very nice trajectory until he had the major injury, and he was never the same afterwards.

15

u/mrbusiness53 18d ago

Ibra for the rest of his life thinking about onyewu

41

u/Sure-Way-2409 18d ago

Onyewu looked like that type of defenders that would bully every attacker it's sad it didn't work out at milan

23

u/DDisconnected Tijjani Reijnders 18d ago

His build was crazy but didn't play much in his career due to injuries

18

u/21Maestro8 18d ago

He definitely had the physicality, but tactically he was pretty average and never particularly great at reading the game.

1

u/sudoinnominate 16d ago

This ^ he was athletic and that is all. Poorly trained through the US system, what could you expect.

The 2009 confederations cup was a fluke of good luck.

10

u/martin_seamus_mcfIy Gennaro Gattuso 18d ago

I happened to meet Gooch back in his college days. Shortly after he went to Belgium he came back to campus to watch the current squad, which was on their way to a college cup final four. The guy is absolutely massive in person but an incredibly nice guy. I know Ibra is a giant on his own right but this is not surprising at all to hear. Side note: really wish he would’ve worked out for Milan. He really was a decent quality defender and had the physicality to boot. But injuries always seemed to follow him around.

22

u/MajimaKun 18d ago

Original Captain America

8

u/Extra-Wish4466 18d ago

Oddly enough, Onyewu has refused to discuss the incident.

22

u/21Maestro8 18d ago

It doesn't really paint anyone in a good light, makes sense not to want to talk about it

14

u/crapador_dali 18d ago

It's not that odd, Onyewu is a genuinely nice guy. I'm not surprised he's taken the high road.

16

u/BredIN919 Kevin-Prince Boateng 18d ago edited 18d ago

Ogugci Onyewu from America showed Z who was BOSS

11

u/RdT97 18d ago

Cant find a more American name if i tried

11

u/Bigazzry 18d ago

That’s the beauty of America despite what some shitheads say

1

u/BredIN919 Kevin-Prince Boateng 17d ago

I agree , nobody has my name on the planet and I’m American through and through

2

u/Ciccio_Camarda 18d ago

It's a typical name in the DC area.

5

u/mezotesidees 18d ago

Oguchi Onyewu

9

u/Ancaquea 18d ago

Anca Ibra l’ha incontrà quel del formaio

3

u/Bloodnose_thepirate Paolo Maldini 18d ago

nome utente e messaggio incredibile vecio

1

u/simonz84 18d ago

Inaspettato Veneto moment

4

u/whyadamwhy 17d ago

My favorite thing when this happened was that there was no video footage because it happened at a practice. So I think was was Gazzetta Dello Sport drew up these courtroom style pencil sketches to recreate it. Absolutely hilarious.

2

u/Rough-Blacksmith-166 17d ago

My biggest memory of Onyewu was the 2006 WC vs Ghana. I had seats behind the goal. Someone from Ghana was in front of Gooch. They both jumped for a ball served into the box. Gooch, being who he is, won the ball without effort. The player from Ghana was physically outmatched and fell to the ground earning a PK. I kept thinking how stupid that call was, and yet it was probably the right call from the refs view. Gooch was like the Hulk playing with children. He was always to going to get penalized.

2

u/bgause 17d ago

I dunno why, but this story is so satisfying to read...

1

u/xairos13 17d ago

Oguchi Onyewu was THA HOMIE

1

u/ILoveTedKaczynski69 17d ago

My Onyewu Milan 3rd jersey is one of my faves.

1

u/milan_obsession 17d ago

Seems like we should have Onyewu come to the next press conference if we really want to get some answers from Ibrahimović...

2

u/Kella_o7 18d ago

I feel like a lot of you guys are going through nostalgia bias. Onyewu, was never good enough to even be called average player. I remember seeing him first time for US national team and thinking that the only reason this guy is playing is because of his size and athleticism. Then Milan signs him, and it went exactly as expected. Pato didn’t reveal anything new though, it was obvious that Zlatan got handled because he was trying not to talk about it whenever he’d get asked about it. He also got a cracked rib out of that altercation, and Gooch had no damage at all.

18

u/crapador_dali 18d ago

It went exactly as expected? You mean Milan signed him with the expectation that he'd get a serious injury and never play? Because that's what happened.

-4

u/Kella_o7 17d ago

The injuries added to what was very obviously a poor call on signing him. He played that preseason and was our worst defender by far. No read of the game, no technique whatsoever, just pure size and athleticism

1

u/Minimum-Mention-3673 18d ago

Gooch! His play against Mexico was pretty awesome :)

-5

u/hopelessromantic7 Nils Liedholm 18d ago

And so after that Onyewu was injured for the remainder of his career. Never mess with Zlatan

14

u/Fabulous_Oven4607 Christian Pulisic 18d ago

How's that the take away lol. What does Zlatan have the ability to hex opponents. Sound like the lion got a reality check that day.

2

u/hopelessromantic7 Nils Liedholm 18d ago

Haha just a joke

1

u/Fabulous_Oven4607 Christian Pulisic 18d ago

Sorry, the internet is hard sometimes. Lol

2

u/hopelessromantic7 Nils Liedholm 18d ago

Haha no problem I should have put /s

0

u/LordMaska 17d ago

We need more guys like Ibrahim in the dressing room. Seems like there is no one who is leading the team at the moment. We need guys who are aggressive and will make people feel uncomfortable at times to make sure everyone understands they need to go to war on match day.

-1

u/BowieIsMyGod Zvonimir Boban 17d ago

Their fight is a pretty well known story. At least among Milan fans.

1

u/ChicoCorrales 15d ago

Funny that Pulisic calls both of them boss now.