Zlatan Ibrahimovic the 'lion' insists he will not quit Manchester United if they fail to reach Champions League

Zlatan Ibrahimovic has refused to commit his future to Manchester United for another season but insisted his decision would not hinge on the club qualifying for the Champions League.

The Sweden striker also admitted that it was his children who persuaded him to join United when he was considering an alternative transfer, that Jose Mourinho simply sealed the deal but that he alone will determine his next move.

Mourinho has urged United fans to camp outside Ibrahimovic’s house if necessary to persuade him to extend his contract after watching the 35-year-old win the EFL Cup for his team against Southampton at Wembley on Sunday.

Ibrahimovic had put United in front with a 25-yard free-kick before heading home the winner three minutes from time to secure a dramatic 3-2 winner, his 26^th goal in 38 appearances for the club since his free transfer from Paris St-Germain last summer.

Mourinho is confident Ibrahimovic will trigger an option in his £290,000 a week deal to stay at United for another 12 months but the player would offer no assurances at this stage and insisted he would retire the moment he felt his powers wane.

“Let’s see what happens,” he said when asked if he would stay. “I mean the moment, how I feel, the situation, we have another two months of the season to go, because according to many I could not do what I’ve been doing.

“No, it [my future] is not about that [qualifying for the Champions League]. I came here and the club wasn’t in the Champions League. So I it had nothing to do with the Champions League. So somebody made up a story that if they don’t qualify for the Champions League I will not extend. It has nothing to do with that.

“I think in your career you have moments. I did not come to England before because it was not the moment. I came when I thought it was the moment and the moment was there. If we speak about the coach, England, the Premier League, the club has to thank him because he called me and asked me to come here, otherwise I would not have been here. Even my two kids wanted to see me play at United.

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“I will stop on top. I will not play one game by being Ibrahimovic and for what I did before. If I don’t perform, if I don’t bring results, I will not play. I will not be like other players, playing because they make a great career and name and they are still playing because they are who they are. I will play as long as I can bring results.”  

Asked if it would be downhill after United, Ibrahimovic replied, deadpan but with a twinkle in his eye: “For me, or the club?” but he did add that there was not another club or manager he had a longing to play for.  

Zlatan Ibrahimovic

United fans have Maximilian, 10, and Vincent, eight, Ibrahimovic’s two children with wife Helena Seger, to thank for convincing him to move to Old Trafford because he was considering joining another club but the former Barcelona and PSG striker said they would not influence his next decision.

“My mind was not here [United], then my kids started to bump my head and Jose called, then I am here,” Ibrahimovic said. “Yes [my children wanted to see me at United] because I had my mind somewhere else. Before everything was coming on top of the table, then Jose called. I have a special relationship with him. When he called it was basically, ‘Tell me what number I should wear?’

“They [my children] are satisfied with what I am doing. But this time I am the boss, not them.”

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Asked where he was considering joining over United, Ibrahimovic said: “Somewhere else obviously.”

The League Cup was the 32^nd trophy Ibrahimovic has won in his extraordinary playing career and he revealed that he had a personal museum built to showcase his silverware. He also believes it is time for those who have questioned him, despite his serial success, to start looking at themselves.

“I have a house only for the medals. It [the League Cup medal) will be in the museum,” Ibrahimovic said. “I’m just trying to be myself. What I bring, I bring a package. I bring my experience from the other clubs I’ve been in, I bring what I have achieved, I bring for the one [person] that I am, people always say I’m difficult to handle and that I have a different character, but still I won wherever I went. So who is the problem? The people who speak [about me] or me?

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“Do I need to do it [keep playing]? In my head I’m never satisfied - I always want more. I’m hungry to do more. That is my mentality. I’m not satisfied with what I’m doing – I always want more.

“This is my 32^nd trophy. I’ve been in five different countries, I’ve been in the best clubs in the world and I’m repeating every year, what I am doing. This is another chapter in my career.”

Zlatan Ibrahimovic

Ibrahimovic has previously described himself as being “an animal” but now he has sought to specify which kind – a lion, the king of the jungle – and said he has a work ethic that shames many young modern-day professionals.

“I’m an animal. I feel like a lion,” he said. “I am a lion. I don’t want to be a lion. The lion is born a lion. It means I’m a lion!

“I feel in good shape. I train hard. People who know me from the locker room know that I train very hard. I have an objective every season I go into. And to reach that objective I need to train hard and I need to suffer when I train, that is how I achieve what I achieve.

“I’m from the old school where they work hard and get what they get from doing the hard work, not like the new school where it is easy to get what you want.” Ibrahimovic said he is revelling in proving wrong those who questioned whether he could cut it in England and believes he is getting better with age.

“I think so,” he said. “I am still doing what I have been doing every year but some people won’t accept it or admit it because I don’t do it in their home ground. I have come to their home ground and now I am doing exactly the same thing what I have been doing all the years. I look good. I know I look good.

“It is special. It’s not about age. I was not worried about age because I know what I am able to do. It is because I am here in England, after all these years of, ‘He didn’t come and show himself here’ but I came. And I came when people thought it was impossible for me to do what I am able to do. It feels good. I am enjoying it. The important thing is what I believed, what I predicted. That is exactly what I am doing.”