Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s first opportunity to play in England ended before it had properly begun after the teenage forward told a QPR coach to “fuck off” during a trial in 1998.
QPR had invited Ibrahimovic and fellow 16-year-old Malmo youth player Tony Flygare to spend a week at Loftus Road as the club looked to strengthen their attack.
The trial came during one of the darkest periods in QPR’s history. The club had been a comfortable top-flight side in the early 1990s, with Ray Wilkins directing play and Les Ferdinand scoring the goals.
Under manager Gerry Francis, QPR finished fifth in the inaugural 1992-93 Premier League season and became London’s leading team. But Francis left for Tottenham in November 1994 and Ferdinand joined Newcastle in July 1995, triggering a sharp decline.
QPR were relegated in 1996 and, over the following two seasons, went through five managers, including caretakers, while struggling near the bottom of the First Division. By late 1998, Francis had returned in the hope of reviving some of the club’s earlier success.
Flygare recalled the trial in an interview with the Daily Mail in 2014. Ibrahimovic had been holding on to the ball when the coach challenged him unexpectedly.
“Zlatan was holding on to the ball for too long and the trainer tackled him when he wasn’t expecting it,” Flygare said.
“For that, Zlatan tackled him back and then told the trainer to ‘fuck off’.”
The coach responded angrily, according to Flygare.
“Being in England was so much different. He just told Zlatan: ‘For that, you’re going to breathe through your arse’. I’ll never forget it. We didn’t hear from QPR again. Zlatan didn’t want to play or stay in England, that is my opinion.”
Ibrahimovic returned to Malmo and made his professional debut the following year. He chose Ajax as his next club in the summer of 2001, before later moving to Juventus.
QPR instead signed Luke Cornwall on loan from Fulham. Cornwall did not score for the club and went on to play for Bradford, Woking, Lewes, AFC Wimbledon, Dulwich Hamlet and the Met Police.
QPR finished 20th in May 1999, staying up on goal difference. Two years later, they were relegated to the third tier for the first time in more than three decades amid financial mismanagement and scandal.
Ibrahimovic’s failed QPR trial was not his last chance to move to England. In 2001, shortly before joining Ajax, he was invited to London by Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger.
“I didn’t have a trial – I came for talks with Arsenal. But Wenger wanted me to do a trial and I said: ‘I don’t do trials. You know who I am,’” Ibrahimovic later said.
He would eventually move to Manchester United in 2016, 18 years after QPR had allowed the future world-class striker to leave following a clash during a week-long trial.
