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LONDON. – The English Premier League have confirmed that Zlatan Ibrahimovic will leave Manchester United this summer. With his departure, United are saying goodbye to their top scorer from last season, but also arguably the player with the biggest personality too. The club had been keen to extend the Swede’s contract for months, with Jose Mourinho even claiming that the deal had more or less been done, before Ibrahimovic distanced himself from such talk after the EFL Cup win. “Let’s see what happens,” he said when interviewed on the pitch after lifting the trophy.

Understandably, the 35-year-old was waiting to see whether United would qualify for next season’s Champions League before committing himself, but his hesitation has cost him a year’s top salary as he recovers from tearing his meniscus and cruciate ligament.

As frustrated as the player must have been to miss out on the Europa League final against Ajax last month, particularly as it was played in his home country of Sweden, you would never have known it, judging from his reaction at the final whistle.

Waving his crutches in the air, he celebrated as enthusiastically as anyone else, posing comically with the trophy on the pitch in front of the fans, before taking more daft photos in the dressing room.

While of course the Champions League final is a much bigger occasion, Ibrahimovic cut a completely different figure than that of Roy Keane and Paul Scholes when they were dragged out onto the Camp Nou turf after United’s victory in 1999, which they both missed through suspension.

A giant in stature, Ibrahimovic also boasts a massive personality, too, which was one of the reasons why Mourinho made him a priority signing in his first summer at the club.

United’s manager knows how to build a winning team, and so it was no surprise that he brought Ibrahimovic with him to Old Trafford, the pair reunited after their days together at Inter Milan. They are fiercely loyal to each other, and clearly both have a very high opinion of the other.

While destroying Manchester City’s manager, Pep Guardiola, in his autobiography while reflecting on his time at Barcelona, Ibrahimovic couldn’t speak well enough of Mourinho.

“He’s the leader of his army,” Ibrahimovic wrote. “If Mourinho lights up a room, Guardiola draws the curtains. I guessed that Guardiola was trying to match up to him. Mourinho would become a guy I was basically willing to die for.”

Ibrahimovic was supposed to be at the end of his career, and people claimed he was past it. He would never be able to keep up with the pace of the English Premier League. Yet Mourinho played him for 90 minutes in almost every game, and before his injury, the Swede was still in the running for the Golden Boot.

Mourinho wasn’t the only one to love the player. The fans did too, having been crying out for someone with his presence and personality for years. – ESPN.