Zlatan Ibrahimovic has been named the Premier League’s player of the month for December after his five goals helped Manchester United find winning form.
The 35-year-old Swedish striker has enjoyed his first season in English football and now has a total of 18 goals in all competitions for Jose Mourinho’s team.
He opened December with a flicked lob against Everton at Goodison Park, then claimed United’s late winner in their 2-1 victory at Crystal Palace.
Ibrahimovic would go on to score twice in a 2-0 win at West Bromwich Albion and once at home to Sunderland on Boxing Day.
In addition, he scored in United’s 2-0 UEFA Europa League win away to Zorya Luhansk, securing his team’s passage to the knockout round.
Ibrahimovic follows Raheem Sterling of Manchester City, Son Heung-min of Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea pair Eden Hazard and Diego Costa in winning the EA Sports-sponsored monthly accolade this season.
‘I am playing in a great team with great team-mates, a great coach and at a great club,’ said Ibrahimovic, who joined United on a free transfer from Paris Saint-Germain over the summer.
It was a double success for United in the monthly accolades, with Henrikh Mkhitaryan winning the Carling Goal of the Month for December with his scorpion kick against Sunderland.
Ibrahimovic also claimed that he’d taught Mkhitaryan how to perform the acrobatic kick in training.
He told EASPORTS.com: ‘It was an amazing goal. I mean, it’s a goal you cannot describe or even really dream about. You can, but to make it real is much more difficult.
‘I’m happy for him because it’s a goal that people will remember forever. I’m also happy because I was involved in it.
‘So I’m happy for him and for the fans, because when the fans get to see a goal like that, it is something amazing – it’s the beauty of the game.
‘We trained a couple of weeks before and I said exactly how to do the movement, as the pass needed to be perfect. So it went well!’
[Daily Mail UK]
