Hernandez: no pressure to replace no-title Ibrahimovic in MLS

“Not really,” Hernandez said in an interview on ESPN’s Now or Never programme. “Because he didn’t win a championship. If we win a championship, that’s going to change everything.”

Despite Ibrahimovic’s impressive strike rate in two seasons with the Galaxy, the team couldn’t make it past the MLS Cup Western Conference semi-finals last season.

Hernandez is Mexico’s all-time leading scorer, but said that wasn’t the only reason Galaxy general manager Dennis te Kloese and coach Guillermo Barros Schelotto had tabbed him after Ibrahimovic opted for a return to AC Milan.

“Zlatan has been a very special here all around the world, not only here (with) the Galaxy,” Hernandez said. “You see right now in AC Milan, he went there and started scoring goals, AC Milan started playing better. He’s a very special guy.

“But one of the things I spoke about with Dennis, with Guillermo was they saw in me apart from scoring goals that I will be the best fit for the team to get the most valuable and most important thing for us — that is winning a championship.”