Earlier this month we covered an interesting comment Zlatan Ibrahimovic made in a brief interview with France’s SFR Sport.
The former Paris Saint-Germain player was asked by the French TV channel what he missed the most about his time with the Ligue 1 club.
His answer? “I miss my last salary from Paris. That is what I miss.”
Initially that was taken to mean that Ibrahimovic had taken a pay cut at Manchester United and the only thing he missed about PSG was the extra money.
Sweden’s Expressen then explained there was more to it. Expressen said that, according to information provided to them, there’s a dispute between Ibrahimovic and PSG over his final salary.
The legal representatives of both Ibrahimovic and PSG were said to be in talks to try and resolve the case. Should that not work, Expressen claimed the footballer could take his former employers through the official legal system, and try to get a ruling forcing the French club to pay.
The prospect of a court action between the two parties isn’t great, given that Ibrahimovic is a club legend for what he did in Paris.
However, it seems PSG have decided to fight back, via the media at least. Friday’s edition of L’Equipe says the reason PSG haven’t paid all of Ibrahimovic’s final salary, holding back 30% of his last month’s pay, is because they paid a tax bill for him when he arrived from Italy.
The L’Equipe article is quite anti-Ibrahimovic, a rarity for them. It says that the Manchester United footballer has the ‘ability to deliver a fragmented version of reality’.
As an example, L’Equipe state: ‘This was the case previously when he said that to leave PSG, where he came out of contract, was his choice: “If I had wanted, I could have stayed another five years,” he said just before the Euros. He could indeed have stayed five more years in Paris, where his family liked but to play football, he would have had to find another club.’
Meow.
On the unpaid salary, L’Equipe state: ‘In fact, PSG has retained a relatively high percentage (approximately 30%) of Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s final month salary. But quite justified. Upon transfer of the Swede from AC Milan to PSG in July 2012, the capital club has paid to the Italian tax authorities taxes which should have been settled by the player but he had forgotten…
‘Ibra has however committed in writing to repay his new employer. That he did not do during his four years in Paris. When the Manchester United striker will settle what is owed to PSG, the latter will then pay him the same amount as the current percentage retained of his final salary.’
This one could get messy, and it’s unfortunate to see a media battle between the two sides of this story. The missing wages are just over the value of one week’s pay after four years at a football club that lauded Ibrahimovic as a legend when he left, there was even talk of naming a stand after the player, it’s all rather odd.
