Zlatan: Pep is a coward

Pep Guardiola is "a coward", insists Zlatan. Upon the German release of Ibrahimovic's autobiography 'I am Zlatan', the Sweden international renewed his criticism of Guardiola, under whom he played for one year at Barcelona, before leaving for AC Milan in 2010.

"Guardiola is a fantastic coach. But as a human? He is a coward. He is no man," Ibrahimovic said.

The Swede alleged that after Lionel Messi complained to Guardiola about him, because "I scored more goals than him," Ibrahimovic never stood a chance under the Spaniard.

He said: "I told him that if I don't fit here, you have to please tell me that. But all I got was sweet talk. 'Ibra you are a super player, you do everything right'. But I still ended up on the bench."

The forward added that he "would have died for [Jose] Mourinho", whom he worked with at Inter Milan and is a rival of Guardiola from their days as opposing managers of Real Madrid and Barcelona.

"He is outstanding, very intelligent and  a great motivator. Guardiola’s philosophical team talks on the other hand -- they are bull***t for the advanced,"  he said.

"Mourinho can handle personalities, he is able to form a team out of 11 characters. But Guardiola isn't. Why did he opt for Munich? Because the team functions without him.

"It's a complete team. He bought new players, but he does not need them. It was a smart move by Guardiola, because nothing can go wrong in Munich. He will have success."

Ibrahimovic, one of the top earners in European football, also said he could imagine playing for Bayern sometime in the future, "but only once Guardiola is gone".

It appears, though, that the door is closed on the Swede joining the Bundesliga champions. Speaking to German tabloid Bild, Bayern president Uli Hoeness said: "I think Ibrahimovic is a sour prima donna and never got over leaving Barcelona.

"No club ever got happy with him. He is a problem bear [a fairly new German saying only introduced to the German language when a brown bear crossed the German border a few years ago and was made a 'Problembar', and finally got shot)."