Zlatan Ibrahimovic will not practice with rest of the team in the first week of March to participate to the Sanremo music festival, the biggest spectacle of the year in Italy, as a regular guest. His presence had already been announced, and he reportedly told Milan while he was negotiating his renewal before the season, but Gazzetta dello Sport laid out the plan today.
The Swedish ace will not commute from the Milanello center to Liguria daily, as the two locations are about 250 kilometers apart, but will train on his own at a nearby facility. Montecarlo was previously mentioned as a likely option for his stay.
The festival will last from Monday to Saturday, but Milan have a midweek game on the schedule, versus Udinese at San Siro on Wednesday. The game is tentatively set to kick off a 6 pm and it will be the only occasion when Ibrahimovic will helicopter in and out. The starting times for the whole round have yet to be decided as Serie A officials are pondering avoiding prime-time matches altogether in order not to overlap with Sanremo, which draws an incredibly large TV audience. The Rossoneri will then face Verona away Sunday.
The presenter and director Amadeus discussed the situation: “World class players like him know how to handle themselves, fans should be serene because he is very organized and he has exemplary self-discipline. You will see something different out of him during the shows, there will be some gags. We are thrilled to have him.”