"Hopefully, one day, I will get an opportunity to meet him" - Indian cricketer Jasprit Bumrah says he's a fan of former Manchester United attacker
Team India fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah yearns a meeting with former Manchester United striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic. The Swede is now an adviser to AC Milan after retiring from the sport last summer at the age of 41.
Ibrahimovic enjoyed a stellar playing career, turning out for some of the top clubs in the game like Milan, Barcelona, PSG, United, Juventus and Ajax, ending his club career with over 500 goals and a further 62 for Sweden.
Bumrah - arguably one of the best all-format bowlers currently - finds similarities between Ibrahimovic's career and his own. Both men have come from non-sporting backgrounds and overcome multiple odds in their careers. As per The Indian Express (via CricCrazyJohns), Bumrah said:
"I am a fan of Ibrahimovic. His story resonated with me - I came from a family where nobody played the sport, nobody knows anything about the sport.
"I used to bowl differently, and many didn't had the belief, what is this bowling, this won't last - so fighting against the odds, I have seen in his story - hopefully, one day, I will get an opportunity to meet him."
Ibrahimovic is widely regarded as one of the best players never to have won the UEFA Champions League.
How former Manchester United striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic fared in the UEFA Champions League
Zlatan Ibrahimovic has a decent record in the UEFA Champions League, bagging 48 goals and 29 assists in 124 games across competitions for seven different clubs in four different countries.
The former Manchester United attacker enjoyed his most prolific stint in the competition while at PSG between 2012 and 2016, scoring 20 times and assisting 12 times in 33 games.
Ibrahimovic's most prolific UEFA Champions League campaign, unsurprisingly, came at the Parc des Princes, when he scored 10 times in eight games. However, the Parisians never ventured beyond the quarter-finals.
For United, he went scoreless in his lone Champions League outing in the 2017-18 season. After four seasons away, Ibrahimovic played four times in the competition, this time for Milan, but didn't score.