Months of speculation came to an end late Tuesday morning as ParisSaint-Germain Director of Football Leonardo confirmed that Swedish forward ZlatanIbrahimovic has indeed signed with the French club. For area soccer fans, the move means one of the world’s bestattacking players will be at RFK for PSG’s July 28th showdown with D.C. United. For the Black-and-Red’s players, thesigning means this month’s marquee international friendly just got a whole lotmore interesting.
Shortly after news of Ibrahimovic’s transfer from AC Milanbroke, we spoke with a trio of D.C.’s starters. Here’s what they had to say:
Midfielder Perry Kitchen
“I’m not more nervous, but definitely more excited. It’s going to be great to step on thefield with a world-class player. It’ll probably be similar to the feeling I get personally when playingagainst [Thierry] Henry or [David] Beckham. You don’t get to play against guys like that very often, soI’m excited and I’m going to enjoy it.”
Defender Brandon McDonald
“The guy has played at Barcelona, AC Milan and Inter Milan sohe is top-class player. I’m reallyexcited. He’s like 6-foot-5 and 200 lbs, so he towers over pretty mucheverybody in every league worldwide. I’m definitely going to have my hands full, but I’m looking forward toit. It’s going to be an honor.”
Midfielder/Forward Dwayne De Rosario
“There are no secrets in his game. He’s good with his feet; he’s good in the air and he’s greaton the ball. He’s also aworld-class finisher. You add allthose things up and you are looking at a long day for our defense. But it’s a great opportunity for themto test themselves against one of the best attacking players in the world rightnow.”
Ibrahimovic led Italy’s Serie A with 28 goals last season,and scored against both Ukraine and France during the 2012 EuropeanChampionships. Buy tickets
