‘Stop, you’re going to kill him!’ – Pato recalls details of Ibrahimovic-Onyewu fight

Alexandre Pato has revealed exactly what happened in the training session that led to a fight between Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Oguchi Onyewu.

The now infamous scuffle between the Swede and the American took place in November 2011, during the season that would actually see Milan go on to lift their 18th Scudetto under the guidance of Max Allegri.

Ibrahimovic had arrived on loan from Barcelona and he scored 14 league goals, as did Pato. The Brazilian recalled how a dangerous challenge from Zlatan during a training session ended up triggering a violent reaction from Onyewu, with things then boiling over.

Pato spoke on the Voci di Calcio podcast and he was asked about what exactly happened between Ibrahimovic and Onyewu that caused them to come to blows, with his words relayed by MilanNews.

“Zlatan took the ball, he went to mark him, then Onyewu unintentionally ‘pum’, hit Ibra’s foot. Except that Ibra’s foot is huge, right? Onyewu’s tackle isn’t exactly simple, you understand? He didn’t hit it like that by chance, he hit Ibra’s ankle and Onyewu continued playing,” he said.

“We understood, Onyewu did it, but it wasn’t with malice, he did it because he wanted to get the ball. Onyewu was just coming back from an injury. Imagine you run and you’re a bit scared, you’re a bit insecure.