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| Ivan Rakitic |
Ivan Rakitić was born at 10 march
1988 in the town of Möhlin, Switzerland, located just a couple of miles from
the Swiss-German border to Croatian parents. Rakitić spent his childhood and
early career in Switzerland. Growing up in a family of footballers, his father
and older brother played football, so it came as little surprise that young
Ivan wanted to follow in their footsteps. Aged just four, Rakitić joined the
football schools at the local FC Möhlin-Riburg. He spent the next three seasons
learning the basics at his hometown club.
After spending some short time in the
youth teams, Rakitić went on to make his first-team debut for Basel on 29
September 2005 during the UEFA Cup away match at Široki Brijeg. He made his
first Swiss Super League appearance on 15 April 2006 in Basel's away match
against Neuchâtel Xamax. Although these two matches were the only ones he
played during his first professional season with Basel, he went on to establish
himself as a regular contributor in his second season, scoring 11 goals in 33
Super League appearances. Also making nine UEFA cup appearances during this
time, he was named the best young player of the 2006–07 Super League season
along with receiving the Swiss Goal of the Year award for an impressive goal he
scored against St Gallen on 22 October 2006.
His excellent performances led to
calls from bigger clubs and in June 2007 Schalke snapped up the youngster for
€5 million. He made his debut for Schalke on 21 July 2007 in the Premiere Ligapokal
fixture against Karlsruher SC, and eventually appeared in the remaining two
matches as Schalke finished runners-up. On 5 August 2007, Rakitić scored his
first competitive goal for his new club in their 9–0 away win over Eintracht
Trier in the first round of the German Cup. Rakitić hit the ground running in Germany,
barely missing a beat. With his role slightly different from the one he was
used to with Basel, Rakitić's goal production dropped, but he continued to
impress his employers. That did not change Rakitić's entire stay in
Gelsenkirchen, but with consistently good games Rakitić started appearing on
radars of different clubs. Sevilla were in desperate need of reinforcements in
January 2011 and decided the Croatian was the solution to their problems,
ending his three and a half year stay in Germany with 135 games played, 16
goals scored and 29 assists.
Sevilla picked Rakitić up for a
discounted €2.5 million, with the two agreeing on a four and a half year
contract. Upon his arrival, Rakitić was immediately included in the starting
eleven of the team, making his debut on 6 February 2011 against Málaga CF. Rakitić
quickly won over the Sevilla fans, scoring six goals in just 16 games in the
first half-season. Rakitić's influence increased from one season to the next
with it culminating in the 2013-2014 season with him leading the Andalusian
side to their first European title in seven years and best La Liga finish in
three. Rakitić's three and a half year stay in southern Spain was very
fruitful. In 149 games he scored 32 goals and added an impressive 41 assists.
With his contract running out Rakitić
was lured by many clubs, but Barcelona won the sweepstakes, On 16 June 2014, FC
Barcelona signed Rakitić on a five-year contract for €18 million. Upon his arrival,
Rakitić was given the squad shirt number 4. His official debut for Barcelona
came on 24 August, in the opening match of the new Primera División season,
against Elche CF. He quickly became one of Luis Enrique's most trusted players
and up to date he has already made more appearances than in all but one season
in his career. In his Barcelona career so far he has made 45 appearances,
scored six goals and assisted on another eight.
On the international level, Rakitić
plays for the Croatia national team. Although naturally a product of
Switzerland's youth level, Rakitić pledged his international career to his
parents' country of Croatia instead. He made his debut for Croatia in 2007 and
has since represented the country at UEFA Euro 2008, UEFA Euro 2012 and the
2014 FIFA World Cup.
Rakitić's first international
experience came at youth level, while competed with the Swiss under-17,
under-19 and under-21 national teams, but decided to take up the call by Slaven
Bilić and play for the Croatia senior national team. He made his full
international debut for Croatia on 8 September 2007 in their Euro 2008
qualifier against Estonia in Zagreb, Croatia, highly praised by the fans as he
was entering the game as a substitute. In Croatia's following qualifier, a 6–0
away win over Andorra on 12 September 2007, he scored his first international
goal for Croatia in only his second appearance for the team. He finished the
year 2007 with five senior international caps to his name, four of which were
in the successful Euro 2008 qualifying campaign. Since then Rakitić has been a
staple in midfield for Croatia, appearing in 70 games over nine years,
averaging exactly one goal per year.
With impressive performance for both
club and country, he was honoured by Swiss Super League Goal of the Season:
2006-07, Swiss Super League Young Player of the Year: 2006-07, 2014 UEFA Europa
League Final: Man of the Match, Europa League Team of the Season: 2013–14, La
Liga Player of the Month: January 2014, La Liga Team of the Season: 2013–14, BBVA
Fair Play award: 2013-14, and more on.
Rakitić is a very physical midfielder
that has experience playing in three different positions: defensive midfielder,
central midfielder and attacking midfielder. By heart he is an attacking minded
player but very rarely neglects his defensive responsibilities. The current form of Barcelona, three game away
from winning liga BBVA,copa del ray, and UEFA championship cup is much credited to the form of evan rakitic.
If Barcelona, able to win these all the title, then he will be recognized as
true leader of mildfilder in the world.
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