Stop, you’re going to kill him!’ – Pato recalls details of Ibrahimovic-Onyewu fight
Alexandre Pato has revealed exactly what happened in the training session that led to a fight between Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Oguchi Onyewu.
The now infamous scuffle between the Swede and the American took place in November 2011, during the season that would actually see Milan go on to lift their 18th Scudetto under the guidance of Max Allegri.
Ibrahimovic had arrived on loan from Barcelona and he scored 14 league goals, as did Pato. The Brazilian recalled how a dangerous challenge from Zlatan during a training session ended up triggering a violent reaction from Onyewu, with things then boiling over.
Pato spoke on the Voci di Calcio podcast and he was asked about what exactly happened between Ibrahimovic and Onyewu that caused them to come to blows, with his words relayed by MilanNews.
“Zlatan took the ball, he went to mark him, then Onyewu unintentionally ‘pum’, hit Ibra’s foot. Except that Ibra’s foot is huge, right? Onyewu’s tackle isn’t exactly simple, you understand? He didn’t hit it like that by chance, he hit Ibra’s ankle and Onyewu continued playing,” he said.
“We understood, Onyewu did it, but it wasn’t with malice, he did it because he wanted to get the ball. Onyewu was just coming back from an injury. Imagine you run and you’re a bit scared, you’re a bit insecure.
You make a tackle and you do it badly, Onyewu controlled the ball with his back to us and we hear Ibra coming and he comes in with both feet on Onyewu, really to do harm and I said: ‘Damn, what happened?’.
“They both fell to the ground, Onyewu got up calmly, he was really good, with a heart of gold. Not that Ibra isn’t, but he’s more impulsive and he immediately got up, started insulting him and spoke in Swedish, we didn’t understand anything.
He tried to grab Onyewu like that [by the collar], he grabbed him to knock him down and what did Onyewu do? He grabbed Ibra and ‘bam’. He threw him down. I think there was a camera filming everything, I think they turned it off.
“For Onyewu it was easy, like getting a glass of water. Imagine Ibra, the guy is huge, he grabbed him and let him go to the ground, threw him down and jumped on him, blocked him and raised his arm. When he did that I said to him: ‘Stop, my God, stop, you’re going to kill him!’
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