On this day 15 years ago, Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored his first Serie A hat-trick as Juventus thrashed Lecce 5-2.
Ibrahimovic enjoyed a prolific debut season in Italy with Juve, at a time in his career when there were doubts he could replicate his Ajax form in a top European league.
He scored 16 goals and provided seven assists in 04-05, capitalising on injury problems to David Trezeguet.
On this day 15 years ago, Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored his first Serie A hat-trick as Juventus thrashed Lecce 5-2.
Ibrahimovic enjoyed a prolific debut season in Italy with Juve, at a time in his career when there were doubts he could replicate his Ajax form in a top European league.
He scored 16 goals and provided seven assists in 04-05, capitalising on injury problems to David Trezeguet.
Three of those strikes came on April 17, 2005 against Lecce, first making a mockery of Lecce’s high line as he took down a long ball and slotted past Vincenzo Sicignano.
The Swede then turned in Pavel Nedved’s through ball first time with a daisy-cutter, before rounding off his treble with a curling effort from the edge of the box.
All of those goals came to symbolise the now-38-year-old as a player, taking them all in his stride with style and swagger.
The Bianconeri went on to win the Scudetto by an eight-point margin that season, but it was stripped from them by the Calciopoli scandal.
Still playing his club football in Italy for Milan, Zlatan is the only player in the league’s history to have scored at least 10 goals for them, Inter and Juve.