'No, no, you don't understand, I don't do trials' - Zlatan Ibrahimovic says a move to Arsenal early in his career never materialized because Arsene Wenger wanted him to trial at the club

• Zlatan talks with Piers Morgan
• Reveals Arsenal contact early in career
• Didn't want to give a trial at club

WHAT HAPPENED? The Swedish legend had the opportunity to join the Gunners earlier in his career after being included on Wenger's list of players who may be signed. Ibrahimovic even went so far as to pose wearing an Arsenal jersey, but his move to North London fell through becasue the French manager wanted Ibrahimovic to trial at the club. The Milan legend detailed why the move never happened on Piers Morgan's show.

WHAT THEY SAID: "When I was young, I had a lot of interest from a lot of clubs, and one of them was Arsenal."

"So, I came to the office of Mr Arsene Wenger, and it was a big hype because I saw these players, Bergkamp, Henry, I saw Ljungberg, I saw Vieira, I saw all these players, and I was like ‘F**k, this is big’, because these players I see on TV, even if I already played in high level Sweden."

"But this was big, because this was like, ‘I am here now’. Last week I was playing PlayStation with these guys. And I spoke with Wenger, and he has this French, he was tall, I didn’t expect him to be so tall."

"I came in his office and we spoke and he was like, ‘What do you want?’ He wanted to get to know me, to feel me. Because I think he is a type of person, he just don’t buy the player, he wants to know what he is buying I think. In the end, he had an Arsenal shirt with Number 9 and, ‘We want you to come and do a trial for two weeks."

"‘I don’t do trials, either you want me or you don’t want me, or else why am I here?’ That was me, but it was not to play a game, it was me. ‘No, but you have to come and do a trial’ and then, ‘No, no, you don’t understand, I don’t do trials’. That was it, I never went to Arsenal."

THE BIGGER PICTURE: Unquestionably one of the best attackers of his time, Ibrahimovic enjoyed remarkable success with a number of elite European teams, including Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain, Inter Milan, AC Milan, Ajax, and Manchester United. Despite winning 12 league titles and more than 570 goals in his professional career, he is frequently hailed as one of the best players to have never captured the Champions League.

IN TWO PHOTOS:

(C)GettyImages

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WHAT NEXT? The Swede retired last year and is enjoying being a fan of the game for the meantime.