Ibrahimovic: United fans are waiting for me

Zlatan Ibrahimovic says Manchester United fans are every bit as excited as he is for his debut ahead of his first appearance for the club against Galatasaray in his native Sweden.

The former Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain man has been the biggest acquisition of the transfer window thus far for United, who signed the classy striker on a free transfer from the French champions at the start of July.

Ibrahimovic missed the first part of United’s pre-season – a trip to China in which they only played one game in a 4-1 loss to Borussia Dortmund as inclement weather saw the cancellation of their second against cross-town rivals Manchester City – but was included in Jose Mourinho’s squad for Saturday’s hit-out against Turkish giants Galatasaray.

And with United fans starved of regular action thus far this pre-season and yet to see their new striker in action, Ibrahimovic said he can sense the excitement ahead of his non-competitive debut.

“Everybody has been waiting for that moment,” he told MUTV.

“There has been a lot of talk and to make my debut in my country will feel great. I think the fans are waiting for me to come back and they are waiting to enjoy not only me, but the team as well.

“Hopefully, we can give them a good game and, at the same time, we are in the preparation. We need to keep focused, to build up the physical part and the conditioning part but we will give them what they want.”

Ibrahimovic only joined United’s pre-season training this week but he has been impressed with the squad Mourinho is assembling as well as the methodologies of the Portuguese manager, who he is linking up with for the first time since winning the Serie A with him at Inter in 2009.

“[It has been] positive vibes. They seem to be good guys, quality players, they train very hard and, during the training, are very focused,” Ibrahimovic said.

“The coach – he is direct, he is concrete, he says what he wants and the players are adapting. So there are only positive things.”