What an emotion charged farewell for Ibra. The mercenary finds the impossible... home. You knew shit was getting real when Ibra started to tear up...
The love affair between Ibra and Milan is one of the most unique in football, perhaps, in all of sport's history. Ibra's journey is the quintessential Hero's journey; it was actually extraordinarily appropriate that he came onto the ground with the Gladiator theme blazing. Ibra starts his career conquering all, anywhere his services were needed, until he lands in Milano (red side) where he thinks he has finally found somewhere worthy to stay, worthy to fight for. In his words, "I felt happiness the first time". Then at his absolute peak in 2012, his now beloved-club crumbles and is forced to sell him off. He feels betrayed and jaded, and then is forced back to his nomadic ways, conquers all, until he no longer could. He experiences his first signs of mortality by rupturing his ACL at 36 with Man Utd, before seemingly vanished across faraway lands, never to grace the fields that he once dominated.
Then, he finds himself in some crazy once-in-a-generation(s) situation, where the place that he longed to call home has continued to decline into disrepute, desperate for a hero, a hero that only he could fulfil. One final chance for glory at the place he never thought he'd leave the first time. Sequels generally end poorly after the initial nostalgia. But this sequel was more than anyone could ask for - well except maybe for Ibra himself. He has finally arrived from a long, long journey to be where his heart and soul yearns for - home. And he has come back to restore his club to a place where it belongs.
Similar to Maximus in The Gladiator, he becomes the "people's emperor" - the leader that guides and restores, the leader that sows the seeds, but perhaps never experiences the maximum glory that his club so promises. This is best epitomised by him receiving his framed jumper from Maldini, who is pretty much Milan's Seneca. Milan plays for European glory, and Maldini is the embodiment of that; with 5 CLs. Ibra has never won a CL, let alone with Milan. But somehow, Ibra embodies AC Milan at its most basic level as a club, a club made of people. You saw this in all of its raw beauty in the farewell; the tears, the joy, even the choked up defiant voice of the announcer announcing Ibra's name for one last time. Somehow, in a season ending without any trophies, AC Milan somehow wins again. One of the most powerful sendoffs I've ever seen. Perfectly fitting for the one and only Zlatan Ibrahimovic.