Milan  - Inter Milan fans may be less inclined to believe that football is a team game after having watched Zlatan Ibrahimovic help them win a third Serie A title in a pulsating season finale.

Monday's La Gazzetta dello Sport called Ibra "The man of dreams" in celebration of his brace that sealed a 2-0 win against Parma and ensured him the adoration of his ecstatic fans.

Celebrations for Inter's 16th title began outside Milan's Duomo square in the afternoon, moved to the Giuseppe Meazza stadium in the evening when the team returned from nearby Parma and went on throughout the night in the city streets.

"You talk, I play," said Ibra, who has not lost his brazenness despite a seven-week absence spent partly in Italy and in Sweden to treat a knee problem. He rose to 17 goals to remain his side's top scorer and the fourth in the league.

Ibra came on six minutes into the second half of a tough rain-drenched game against a Parma side who unsuccessfully tried to avert relegation.

In less than half an hour, with two classy goals, he put Inter again ahead of a Roma side who was winning 1-0 at Catania and had temporarily leapfrogged Inter. Catania then drew 1-1, managing to avoid relegation.

"I'm very happy. It seems to me that we won a league despite having all the rest of Italy rooting against us," Inter president Massimo Moratti said.

"But this makes us even more proud because ours is a beautiful club who deserved this joy."

After a 2006 title awarded to Inter by a sports court and the 2007 one won with powerhouse Juventus sentenced to play in the Serie B and a penalized AC Milan, Sunday's triumph swept away all doubts about Inter's worth.

The blue-blacks seemed to be in for another easy march toward the title as they started the season at a brisk pace and had built an 11-point lead by early February.

The second half of the season, though, was marked by injuries and several slip-ups from Inter, which allowed Roma to gradually erode the champions' lead to a single point with one game left.

Tension rose ahead of the last game as some Inter players and coach Roberto Mancini seemed to be involved in an investigation into a friend charged with drug dealing.

Mancini did not talk much before and after his third success at Inter and this week is to meet with president Moratti about a contract he seemed close to ending when the team was eliminated from the Champions League in March.

He will certainly be on the bench next Saturday for a mouthwatering Italian Cup final they play for a fourth straight time against trophy holders Roma.

Inter's Argentinian captain Xavier Zanetti praised the rivals saying "now it's our turn to celebrate, with many compliments to Roma, who were worthy rivals in a memorable season." (dpa)