Ibrahimovic is my favorite player.
After 2007 and the weird period between 2007 and 2010, I was confused as to what was happening. Ronaldinho, Pato, Huntelaar, Leaonardo was a weird time. Milan were still a glamor club, that's why Beckham kept coming back, and there were the wins against Real, I just figured it was a weird time between generations.
When Ibrahimovic came to Milan I felt like... Milan is coming back. That 2010 team was one of my favorites, because they really just played with power, with Kevin Prince, Pato, Van Bommel, Flamini, Thiago Silva, I just loved how that team looked like. Smart signings here-and-there, like MVB, like Cassano, SES, I thought, "hey, Galliani is going to wheel-and-deal his way to another great team, with Ibra and TS."
When Ibra left, he was angry. Thiago Silva was, too, but Ibra was openly angry. He had been at Barca, and Inter, and Juve, and now he was at PSG, and it was always Milan that he talked about. Even after going to Man Utd he said that Milan was the biggest club he'd ever been at, and that was a hell of a thing to say considering where he had played.
Ibra's attitude annoyed me more in 2010 than it does now, because I think I took it seriously then, I only found him kicking Cassano in the head funny after Cassano went to Inter, otherwise I thought "if I had a teammate like that, I'd hate him." But seeing how he was, he was actually someone who maintained that insane drive for success. I honestly think that after he came to Milan, he was only behind Messi and CR7 at that time, just pound-for-pound as a player. His lack of success in the CL was an argument, sure, but R9 never won the CL, and Ibra's faith in Milan, the way he talked about Milan, just made me appreciate him more.
Ibra left Milan and didn't talk to Galliani for a long time. The fact Ibra came back here, when Napoli was probably the more attractive option at the time (I know there is a cynical way to look at this, but I don't agree with it [for various reasons]) but Ibra came back here for Milan, for the sake of Milan.
The reason I'm going with Ibra is because of various things, I wore/wear 11 like he does (I wore it before, but I was so happy when Ibra took 11 because no one really cool ever wore 11 [Massaro excluded]) and while my play-style wasn't like his, I was a striker, and Ibra just was capable of magic. I remember when he was at Juve and people said "he's like MVB" and I rolled my eyes, even then as a kid. I still don't think he's MVB, but he's better than the strikers in the 2010's, Suarez, Lewa, and Benz included. I don't want to get into that debate, but Ibra is someone who actually loves this club. There were other options he could have went to, but he stuck to Milan, and Milan is now going to be his legacy. When people think of Ibra, they're going to think of him with a Milan shirt, more than any other. He's ours.
Which is why I had to pick him, because this team, these young lions. I love them all. I love Tomori, Theo, Maignan, Calabria, Kalulu, Tonali, Bennacer, Leao, Giroud, Kjaer, Florenzi, Tata, Daniel, Sales, Messias, the entire squad. I love them because I see them as a group, a real team, a unit directed towards winning. I'm so proud of them. The idea of Leao or Bennacer leaving hurts, it makes me sad.
I was proud of the Milan teams of the 90s, because my red-and-black team beat my best friend's white-and-black team and I was a kid, and Weah wore red boots, and Maldini and Albertini and Boban and all that--I was a kid and I just knew that I loved Milan, for various reasons, but the 2002-2007 team, I loved that team because every single player was a legend (I did not recognize what strong teams we had when I was a kid).
You know those line-up shots during CL games? When they would go down the lineup, every single player was someone to be feared, and to me, it wasn't about the team, it was that each player was great because that was what defined Milan. You'd have an argument about teams, and then you'd hear like "ohh Frank Lampard" or "Scholes" or "Figo" or whatever, and you'd laugh. Then 2008, 09, 2010 happened, and then Ibra came back, and I felt like that ferocity was starting to come back. Ibra and Thiago Silva! Pato! There was a spine there... But it was individual players that I could point to, each individual champions, who I look back and realize, Allegri was just riding the luck of having the best players around, an amazing unit.
That's why I can't pick between Theo or Tonali, Kalulu or Calabria, Tomori or Leao, etc, I love this team, and I know that players we see as "locks" will lose their form and get sold, transfers we wanted (and get) will bust, random transfers become stars, and the squad that we have today will probably look very different in 4 years than it does today. I hope it doesn't. I want to win with these guys. I want to win CLs with these guys. But I love this team because they are working together as a unit, and that's because they're not all ready to be champions, alone. Theo is. Maignan is. Tomori is. Leao, Tonali, Kalulu, are getting there, Bennacer, too, but I hope to feel the same way about them as I do about that 02-07 team.
Ibra is the one who has given that link from our last great period from 2002-2007 to the squad today, not because he was there, but because he learned from those players, from Seedorf, Nesta, Ambro, Pippo, they were still there, to pass on what it means to play for Milan to him. He's not the best Milan player, he's not even close, he might be a third team XI guy, but in terms of changing the culture here, of teaching these young guns how to play, how to train, how to win, how to push, he's my favorite player on the squad--I think he's been the leader to change the culture, to teach these boys, who will one day teach that next generation, because Milan is a special club, it's a special team, it's unique in its formation as a club of glory and winning, but still has the feel of a special secret club, of doing things differently, better, smarter, and with audacity.
So, yeah, it's Ibra.