There's a love triangle emerging from football's holy trinity - the trinity that doesn't include Lionel Messi.
And the one that
does include Wayne Rooney.
Rooney likes Ronaldo, Ronaldo likes Rooney. Zlatan is digging at Ronaldo, Zlatan admires Rooney. Ronaldo is indifferent to Zlatan.
A new BBC documentary, Rooney - The Man Behind The Goals, has more nuggets than a Darby O'Gill screening.
And sure it only includes himself, Zlatan (all genuflect), who is speaking about England's record-breaker in esteemed tongue.
"I would love to have played with him," Ibrahimovic says of Rooney in the documentary, serialised by the
Daily Mail. "I will just have to continue watching him instead."
But, of course, he seizes the opportunity to take a swipe at his rival for the king of the world throne, whilst simultaneously praising Rooney again.
"When he was playing with Cristiano Ronaldo, all the work was done by Wayne," he said. "But he didn’t get the credit because Ronaldo was scoring all the goals."
There's more input from the like of Ryan Giggs, Gary Neville, Sven Goran Eriksson and, yes, Cristiano Ronaldo too. And Ronnie's teasing tuppence worth might just get United fans dreaming again.
"Maybe we will play together again," he ponders. "Who knows?"
The full documentary airs on Monday night at 9pm.
