Zlatan Ibrahimovic breaks 500-goal barrier as AC Milan go top of Serie A

Swedish veteran scores twice to reach latest career landmark in 4-0 thrashing of Crotone

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  Zlatan Ibrahimovic celebrates scoring AC Milan's first goal in their 4-0 Serie A thrashing of Crotone at the San Siro on February 7. Reuters

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  Zlatan Ibrahimovic after scoring his - and AC Milan's - second goal. AFP

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  AC Milan's Ante Rebic makes it 3-0 at the San Siro. EPA

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  Milan's Ante Rebic celebrates scoring their third goal with Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Reuters

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  Zlatan Ibrahimovic scores Milan's first goal past Crotone goalkeeper Alex Cordaz. Getty

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  AC Milan manager Stefano Pioli. EPA

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  AC Milan's Zlatan Ibrahimovic heads at goal. AFP

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  Milan's Zlatan Ibrahimovic makes it 2-0. EPA

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  Milan's Zlatan Ibrahimovic celebrates scoring their second goal with teammates. Reuters

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  Zlatan Ibrahimovic scores Milan's second goal. Reuters

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  Zlatan Ibrahimovic celebrates after scoring Milan's second goal. Getty

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  AC Milan's Zlatan Ibrahimovic opens the scoring. AFP

Zlatan Ibrahimovic took his tally to more than 500 goals in a remarkable club career after scoring twice in AC Milan's 4-0 battering of Crotone and help his team return to the top of Serie A.

Ibrahimovic fired Milan ahead in the 30th minute with his 500th club goal and extended that tally in the second half. Ante Rebic scored two goals in less than a minute shortly after.

The Swedish veteran was the star of the show, though, maintaining his incredible form 22 years after making his professional debut for Swedish club Malmo in 1999.

"It means that I have scored a few goals in my career," said the Swede who was substituted with 15 minutes to go.

"The important thing is to continue to help the team in the best possible way. My job is to score and create situations to score."

Ibrahimovic reached the landmark in 825 games, having played for three Serie A sides, Juventus, Inter and Milan, as well as Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester United, Barcelona, Ajax and Los Angeles Galaxy.

He has now scored 396 league goals, 57 in European competitions and 48 in cup games.

The former Sweden striker returned to Milan in January 2020 and has scored 27 goals in 37 appearances since.

He has scored 14 league goals in 11 games this season, two short of top scorer Cristiano Ronaldo. Ibrahimovic also scored 62 times in 116 international appearances for Sweden.

Milan, meanwhile, move two points above second-place Inter Milan, who won 2-0 at Fiorentina on Friday. The two Milan teams meet in two weeks.

"We're thinking one game at a time. Today we just needed to win and we did that. We did well in the second half, in the first half we were too slow," Milan captain Alessio Romagnoli said.

"We're thinking about the Champions League as an objective, then at the start of April we will see."

Crotone came into the match rock bottom having lost five of their previous six matches.

Milan thought they had taken an early lead but Davide Calabria’s goal was disallowed as Ibrahimovic had been offside in the build-up.

They did break the deadlock when Ibrahimovic played a one-two with Rafael Leao before placing an angled drive into the far side of the goal.

Ibrahimovic's 501st club goal was perhaps the easiest he has scored as he was left unmarked, six yards out, to tap in Theo Hernandez's low cross.

That was in the 64th minute, and Crotone then fell apart.

Rebic headed in Hakan Calhanoglu’s corner in the 69th and then, moments later, fired in the rebound after Ibrahimovic’s effort had been parried by Crotone goalkeeper Alex Cordaz.