Alexandre Patomany years later, in the Voci di Calcio podcast he told his version of the brawl between Ibrahimovic and Onyewu, which took place when the two played at Milan: “Zlatan took the ball, he went to mark him, then Onyewu without wanting it ‘pum’, he hit Ibra’s foot. Except that Ibra’s foot is huge, right? Onyewu’s entry is not exactly simple, you understand? He didn’t hit like that by chance, he caught Ibra and Onyewu’s ankle He continued to play.”
Pato he continues: “We understood, Onyewu did it like that, 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’re running and you’re a little scared, you’re a little insecure . You make a tackle and you do it badly, Onyewu controlled the ball from behind and we hear Ibra coming and he comes in with both feet on Onyewu, really to hurt and I said: ‘Damn, what happened?’ ground, Onyewu got up calmly, he was really good, with a heart of gold, not that Ibra isn’t, but he is more impulsive and he immediately got up, started insulting him and spoke in Swedish, sometimes we didn’t understand anything. He tried to grab Onyewu like this (by the collar, ed.), he grabbed him to throw him down and what did Onyewu do?
He grabbed Ibra and ‘bam’. He threw it down. I think there was a camera filming everything, I think they then had it turned off. For Onyewu it was as simple as getting a glass of water. Imagine Ibra, the guy is huge, he caught him and let him go to the ground, he threw him down and jumped on top of him, blocked him and raised his arm. When he did it I told him: ‘Stop, my God, stop, you will kill him’.”