He was expecting to come face to face with someone bonkers - but Aaron Hickey admits it was a different Zlatan Ibrahimovic he faced.
Scotland's promising full-back has impressed at Brentford following his move to the Premier League from Bologna, where he mixed it with some of Serie A's biggest names. One of those was the infamous Swede talisman, who is now 40 but still plying his trade at the highest level with AC Milan. The former Hears star met with him twice, once in a 4-2 loss where Ibrahimovic scored an own goal but also notched one at the other end, while they faced each other during a San Siro stalemate
Hickey is no stranger to big names - having decked Cristiano Ronaldo in a Brentford meeting with Manchester United in August - and admits the famous striker's personality of arrogance and style didn't appear first-hand, but rather in presence. When asked about the big players he's come up against, Hickey told Sky Sports: "Zlatan, he's a big name. He was good and he wasn't as bad as I thought he was going to be.
"I thought he'd be nuts. But you could tell the way he walks around and talks to the referee... he's a great player."
That barge with Ronaldo this season went viral, and a few messages arrived on his phone afterwards. But he didn't think too much of it.
On the incident, Hickey added: "I tried to get on with the game. I knew it was him but it didn't bother me too much, I was trying to focus on the team. After it I shook his hands and tried to see if he was ok. My friends were telling me it was class, I got a few messages."
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