Report: Zlatan Ibrahimovic, LA Galaxy in Talks Again, Nearing Deal
The LA Galaxy and Manchester United forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic are in talks over a potential move, but a deal is not done yet, according to ESPN's Jeff Carlisle and Taylor Twellman.
On Sunday night, Twellman tweeted that discussions "gained some serious legs over the last couple of days" and that he believes a deal will get done.
This is not the first time in which the Galaxy and Ibrahimovic have explored a possible deal. The MLS club expressed interest last year before Ibrahimovic went down with a knee injury in April. Ibrahimovic instead returned to Manchester United, where he has made seven league and cup appearances since returning from injury but suffered an injury setback in December. He is slated to return to training next week.
Last week, Manchester United signed Alexis Sanchez from Arsenal, which could make for a more muddled set of options for Jose Mourinho to choose from in the attack.
Ibrahimovic would reportedly not enter MLS as a Designated Player, according to ESPN's report, with Targeted Allocation Money factoring heavily into the acquisition.
Ibrahimovic, who turned 36 in October, would join a vaunted Galaxy attack that already includes Mexico international Giovani Dos Santos, U.S. midfielder Sebastian Lletget, French veteran Romain Alessandrini and new acquisition Ola Kamara, who has scored 34 goals in his first two seasons in MLS, both spent with the Columbus Crew.
The Galaxy, who are used to deep playoff runs and have a league-high five MLS Cups, finished last in the league last season, going 8-18-8.