Larsson believes in Ibrahimovic

Asked about the transfer of his compatriot Zlatan Ibrahimovic to Barcelona, former Barcelona player Henrik Larsson has said in an interview with Catalan newspaper La Vanguardia that he believes the player will succeed:

"He'll triumph at Barcelona, I don't have any doubts on that. He's intelligent and yes, he has a character, but which player doesn't?

When I saw him for the first time - it must have been in 2001 - I realized that he was 1 metre 95 and that he weighed 90 kilograms and you don't expect to see him play like he does, moving like that.

I never saw a player like that in my life because he was so tall but he moved like Xavi or Messi, just to name two examples. He still has to get better and at Barça, the best team in the world, he has a big chance to get better.

Is he better than me? We're very different, in fact we cannot be compared. He's very tall, very strong, while I move more in the box, I can't stay quiet. Zlatan is really very good, I guess he's already better than me. But I have to say that when I was at my peak, very few strikers in European football were better than me."

You shouldn't believe everything that is said about him, the Swedish press hasn't always been fair towards him. I have to say that he's not a typical Swedish football player, because his roots are in the former Yugoslavia, because he grew up on the street and that he needed to learn how to defend himself.

Personally I never had a problem with him, he is like he is, he has his own character, but it's a good guy, he's passionate and the typical team-mate who would do everything for his team-mates, he'll do everything that is needed to help them. I'm confident, I believe in him, he deserves all this and even more than that."

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