Zlatan Ibrahimovic was in no doubt when naming ex-England star he likes more than any other player

Zlatan Ibrahimovic named the former England player he liked the most, in a throwback interview.

Former Sweden star Ibrahimovic was one of the greatest strikers of his generation, having won 34 trophies and netted over 500 career goals across four decades.

His career included spells at a spate of enormous clubs, including Ajax, Juventus, Inter, AC Milan, Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester United.

While Ibrahimovic was one of the most lauded strikers of his day, the Swede has heaped praise on one of contemporaries.

In a 2011 interview with the BBC the striker said: “The player I like is Wayne Rooney. For me, Rooney is a fantastic footballer. I can imagine him playing alongside me.

“For me, Rooney is not the player who scores 40 goals a season. But he is the player who helps his partner score lots of goals because he is working for one, two and maybe three other players. It seems like he has a strong mentality to win – like me he doesn’t like to lose.

“I think crazy things happen around him also. He is an impulsive guy like me. In football no-one is perfect. You learn from your mistakes and I like that with him. He is himself; I think that is very important. That is one English player I like more than anyone.”

Rooney and Ibrahimovic played alongside one another at United (Getty)

Of course, Wayne Rooney and Ibrahimovic went on to play together at Manchester United for two seasons between 2016 to 2018.

In 2016, Ibrahimovic described Rooney as a “fantastic” person and the “perfect player”.

“As a person he’s fantastic, I have the luck to get to know the person,” Ibrahimovic said of Rooney, via Sky Sports.

“As a player, there are no words to not say about him – he’s the perfect player. Everybody knows what he can do, what he did, what he has done. I’m happy for him to break the record and I will help him to go one more – then I see it as the real record.”