Galaxy President Says Zlatan Ibrahimovic Wants to Remain in Europe
It's time to officially hit the brakes on the Zlatan-to-MLS train...for now.
In announcing the signing of Mexico star Jonathan Dos Santos today, LA Galaxy president Chris Klein dropped an intriguing bit of information regarding Zlatan Ibrahimovic, one of the club's primary transfer targets who is currently out of contract after a one-year stint at Manchester United.
Though the Galaxy were engaged in negotiations with Ibra, Klein said, he now expects the striker to sign with a club in Europe once he completes he recovery from a torn ACL suffered towards the end of the most recent season. However, Klein said, should Ibrahimovic decide to come to MLS, his team would have first dibs.
Most likely, Klein is referring to the Galaxy owning Ibrahimovic's discovery rights (if you need a refresher as to what those are, there's a flowchart for that), but unless Ibra decides to come to MLS even later in his career, it appears likely that he'll be finishing his career in Europe.
Where in Europe? Well, according to a not-so-subtle hint from Jose Mourinho, a return to Manchester United could be on the cards.
As for the Galaxy, they are tapped when it comes to Designated Players at this point anyway, with Dos Santos, his brother Giovani and Romain Alessandrini occupying the three allotted roster spots for DPs.
