Ibrahimovic warned Haaland not to let Guardiola's 'ego' ruin his career at Manchester City.
Since joining Etihad, Haaland has become the hottest player in world football at the moment. The supernova has scored 22 goals in 15 appearances this season.
Manchester City spent £51m to sign Haaland from Borussia Dortmund in the summer transfer window, and the 21-year-old quickly proved he could fit Pep Guardiola's side perfectly. In recent years, Pep Guardiola has often resorted to "no striker" without a centre-forward option, and it has also been a huge success.
However, Swedish superstar Ibrahimovic has warned the Norwegian that Pep Guardiola could have a negative impact on his career, possibly stemming from his own unpleasant experience with the Catalan coach during his time at Barcelona. The Swede had a bad season with Pep Guardiola at Camp Nou in 2009-10 before switching to AC Milan after a serious breakdown in their relationship.
Ibrahimovic was outraged by his unsuccessful experience at Barcelona, having previously claimed that the coach was in order to let Messi play in the middle and chose to sacrifice him because the center forward is his position. The former Swedish national team captain then broke with Pep Guardiola and even had serious clashes in the dressing room and training ground.
In 2016, when asked what he thought of Pep Guardiola, Ibrahimovic was dismissive of his former coach, saying: "A lot has happened between then and now, so I don't know how he works today. I don't care because he's not my coach. ”
Ibrahimovic, who started talking about Haaland on Canal Plus, praised the Norwegian: "I like him very much, he's a very smart player, he doesn't do anything beyond his ability. He won't try to break through with the ball, he'll wait in front of the goal for a scoring opportunity. He reminds me of Inzaghi, Trezeguet and Vieri. In fact, Haaland is the latest enhanced version of these three men. ”
However, the Milan veteran then went on to attack his former manager. He added: "Can Pep Guardiola improve his level? It's up to Pep Guardiola's ego to see if he allows Haaland to be more important than himself. He didn't allow me or anyone else to be more important to the team than he was. ”