Jose Mourinho : Zlatan Ibrahimovic one of the best players I've ever coached

Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Jose Mourinho

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho says Zlatan Ibrahimovic was easy to work with while at Inter together.

Mourinho and Ibrahimovic are preparing to face-off against each other as Chelsea were drawn against Paris Saint-Germain in the quarter-finals of the Champions League.

The French side have been magnificent in the tournament this season and remain the competition’s dark horses, sneaking up behind the frontrunner, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich.

The Swedish striker has been their star man this season and has 10 goals in the competition. He has a reputation of being hard to work with and holding a poor attitude but Mourinho thinks otherwise, having previously worked with him at Italian club, Inter.

He said: “Zlatan Ibrahimovic was easy. I don’t understand why people say that it’s difficult to work with strong personalities. What is difficult is to work with people who don’t want to win, or who don’t want to improve.

“When you are in charge of ‘a winner,’ a person who always wants to win, who wants to be the best and isn’t afraid of great responsibility, it’s very easy to deal with them. I only coached him for a season and it was a good experience. For me, he’s one of the best players I’ve ever coached. Everyone would have liked to have seen him in Brazil, but Sweden didn’t qualify.”