Footballers who finish their career in Saudi Arabia risk being remember for how much money they earned, not their talent on the pitch, according to Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
The former striker retired in the summer after a prestigious career that spanned the likes of Barcelona, Manchester United, AC Milan and Paris Saint-Germain.
Having won Serie A in his penultimate year in football, the 42-year-old departed on a high despite previosuly heading off on a sojourn in MLS with LA Galaxy.
Players such as Jordan Henderson and Neymar have faced questions over their recent decision to accept huge pay days from Saudi football.
“I had an offer also from China, I had an offer also from Saudi,” Ibrahimovic told Piers Morgan Uncensored.
“But the situation is, what do you want? What objectives do you have? Certain players need to finish their career on the big stage because that is the high end of your career.
“You have to be remembered for your talent, not for what you earned. Because if you were remembered in the opposite way, what we are training every day for, what we are being recognised for is our talent and that is what you want to be remembered for.
“So I think certain players that reach a certain level, they have to stop at a certain stage and that’s the big stage.
“You cannot go in a lower stage and finish your career in a different way, but some players needed the situations where you can earn a lot of money because they didn’t earn enough.”
The outspoken Swede has previously faced criticism of his own after he spoke out against mixing politics and sport, following LeBron James’ activism in NBA.
And Ibrahimovic has no issue with any moral implications for those playing in Arabia. He said: “No, absolutely not. You have the golf situation now. They came together and they made it one, so I am just sorry for the (golf) players that didn’t go before because they didn’t get the money that the (other) players got.
“Listen, wherever you play football, it’s football. Football connects people. It’s a dream we share, both of us.
“As a professional football player, as long as you play football - and Saudi is growing, MLS is growing. China had a peak and then I don’t know the situation changed there.
“But a moral thing? No. We do things for ourself and our family. Who will judge you in five or 10 years when you have a wealthy, healthy life and have a good life?
“Nothing is for free - you [Morgan] don’t work for free, I don’t work for free. I don’t need money, but I am very expensive.”
