ZLATAN IBRAHIMOVIC confirmed his softer aspect as he reminisced with terminally-ill pal Thijs Slegers.
Widespread former journalist Slegers, 46, met Zlatan throughout the Swede's days enjoying within the Eredivisie with Ajax as a teenager.
The pair rapidly hit it off, with Ibra even crediting Slegers in his autobiography.
Having beforehand labored for Dutch media retailers, Slegers took up a brand new position as position as press officer at PSV Eindhoven in 2015.
He was tragically recognized with acute leukaemia in October 2020, and introduced the heartbreaking information final week that his sickness is terminal.
Slegers appeared on an ESPN broadcast within the Netherlands yesterday, with various his buddies from the soccer business sharing their tales from down the years.
Certainly one of these buddies was soccer legend Ibrahimovic.
Requested if he remembered the primary time he met Slegers, the emotional 41-year-old mentioned: "If I bear in mind? I'll all the time bear in mind.
"He was the one pal I had from Holland. I used to be misplaced, I used to be younger, I used to be confused.
"I actually did not have anyone in Holland. I had this journalist that reached out to me and in that point, the journalists, they weren't my buddies. They had been the alternative, enemies.
"And he reached out and we met for a dinner, lunch as an example and from there we turned actually good buddies.
"We performed tennis, we met, he helped me quite a bit. He gave me all of the help I wanted and that was a primary step in my profession.
"I even wrote about Thijs in my guide, I used to be very grateful for all the things and we nonetheless maintain involved and he went straight in my coronary heart from that second."
As each males welled up with tears, Zlatan completed: "Thijs, I solely need to say that I like you my pal."
In the course of the programme, Slegers appealed to viewers to change into stem cell or blood donors.
And this morning ESPN confirmed that just about 10,000 folks had signed up to take action due to Slegers' courageous enchantment.
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