ROME (AP) — When Zlatan Ibrahimovic walked into a Serie A locker room for the first time at age 22 and saw the likes of Alessandro Del Piero, David Trezeguet and Gianluigi Buffon staring at him, he acknowledges that it felt like a “fantasy world.”

The retired Sweden superstar, now an advisor at AC Milan after also playing for the Rossoneri over two different spells as well as city rival Inter Milan, credited the Italian league with shaping him into one of the world’s top strikers during an entertaining on-stage discussion at this week’s European Football Clubs assembly.

“When I came to Italy, it was the biggest competition in the world and all the big players were playing there. I was young. I didn’t have a lot of respect, to be honest, because I wanted to prove myself,” Ibrahimovic sa

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