  We analyze the XMM dataset of the interacting cluster of galaxies Abell 3528
located westward in the core of the Shapley Supercluster, the largest
concentration of mass in the nearby Universe. A3528 is formed by two
interacting clumps (A3528-N at North and A3528-S at South) separated by 0.9
$h_{70}^{-1}$ Mpc at redshift 0.053. XMM data describe these clumps as relaxed
structure with an overall temperature of $4.14 \pm 0.09$ and $4.29 \pm 0.07$
keV in A3528-N and A3528-S, respectively, and a core cooler by a factor
1.4--1.5 and super-solar metal abundance in the inner 30 arcsec. These clumps
are connected by a X-ray soft, bridge-like emission and present asymmetric
surface brightness with significant excess in the North--West region of A3528-N
and in the North--East area of A3528-S. However, we do not observe any evidence
of shock heated gas, both in the surface brightness and in the temperature map.
Considering also that the optical light distribution is more concentrated
around A3528-N and makes A3528-S barely detectable, we do not find support to
the originally suggested head-on pre-merging scenario and conclude that A3528
is in a off-axis post-merging phase, where the closest cores encounter happened
about 1--2 Gyrs ago.
