JerseyAddict
Well-known member
Nice read, thanks.
Ivan Rakitić
- Thread starter Barcaman
- Start date
JerseyAddict
Well-known member
Yes. Funny how people think it is "underachievement" not to win 3-4-5-6 cups every year. I realy wonder what players think when they get treble in La Liga and people ask them something like "couldn't you try LITTLE harder and add Champions League". 
El Flaco
Active member
Rakitic's interview with The Times
Since the article is behind a paywall, I simply copy-pasted the entre text from it to here...
Since the article is behind a paywall, I simply copy-pasted the entre text from it to here...
Six games into his Barcelona career, and Ivan Rakitic was briefly basking in the glow of a 6-0 thrashing of Granada. The all-action Croatia midfielder had headed home from Lionel Messi, who scored twice while Neymar plundered a hat-trick. Newly arrived from Seville in 2014, Rakitic was then reminded of the stratospheric expectations at the Nou Camp.
“After that game, I had an interview and they asked me, ‘What happened with Barça? You didn’t play well.’ I was thinking, ‘What?! We won 6-0.’ So I said, ‘OK, we’re going to work really hard so that in the next game we’ll be better.’ The pressure inspires me. This pressure is different to other clubs. That’s why Barça are the best club in the world.”
Barcelona finished the 2014-15 season with Rakitic, Luis Suárez and Neymar scoring in the Champions League final against Juventus, doing the treble and sating demand for at least a few weeks. “You have to understand that in Barcelona the pressure is so high that you have to win every game, and win with style,” continued Rakitic, talking at Barcelona’s training ground before Wednesday’s Champions League visit of Manchester City.
“When we then played the Club World Cup in Yokohama, it was crazy,” Rakitic said. “Small kids were waiting five or six hours just to say hello at the airport, the hotel, the stadium, everywhere. This is why they say Barça is ‘Mes Que Un Club’. The whole world loves Barça.
“People like to see Leo, Ney and Luis score all these goals. All the people are laughing, so happy but when you’re inside Barça it is different. They say, ‘You play with the best players, it is easy, no?’ It is not so easy as people think. There isn’t another team in the world that wants to attack all the time. We have the same idea when we play Real Madrid or a team from the Segunda Division.”
Rakitic contributes in many ways but his main role is to help construct the platform for the fabled MSN attack. “It’s like when three kids take the ball and just want to play. They want to score all the time. I remember last season, we were 6-0 in front [against Sporting de Gijón] and somebody didn’t give a pass to them and they were angry because they want to score again.
“They’re really hungry. Leo has won everything but he wants it again. Next season, he wants it again. When I arrived from Sevilla, I knew that if I have to run 10,000m for them, I will do this, and I’ll do this with a smile because I’m happy to be part of this.” Already superbly fit when he joined, Rakitic has still lost 4kg, dropping to 76kg (about 12st), becoming even more of an athlete in assisting the artists.
“If I can make Leo that little bit better, so I do it. Sometimes, I laugh on the pitch watching Leo’s skill. He’s a unique player. If you want to see skill like that, you have to take PlayStation! I don’t like playing against Leo in training. I like him in my team. It’s easy then! Of course I like Cristiano [Ronaldo], he’s a big player, and there are maybe ten players really special and I respect them and I say to all of them, ‘Congratulations’, but if we speak about the best, it is Leo Messi.
“Neymar is on the way to be the next best. Barça will do the best thing to sign a new contract with him [one is on the table which Neymar indicates he will sign] and maybe they can put a buyout clause as high as possible, because he will be the next Messi for sure. He’s scored [nearly] 300 goals and he’s only 24. He’s really special.
“The years at Liverpool were really important for Luis. There he takes the change from a good player to be the best striker in the world and then do the next step at Barcelona. When he’s not playing; it feels something’s wrong. Luis is one of the most important players for us. He’s a really good guy in the dressing room, one of the most open people who likes to joke.
“We lose the biggest character with Dani Alves [who moved to Juventus in July]. He was the most important guy for the dressing room.” Why? Clothes? Character? “Everything. But there are a lot of crazy — in a good way — guys like [Gerard] Piqué, Jordi Alba, Luis, Ney. It’s a really good dressing room.”
And what of Andrés Iniesta, so often the elegant harbinger of pain for English sides? “I always have this feeling that Andrés is dancing on the pitch,” Rakitic said, smiling. “It’s like when you hear classical music. Every step, he’s dancing with the ball.”
The likes of Iniesta and Messi are indelibly associated with the Barcelona of Pep Guardiola, City’s new head coach. “Of course it will be emotional,” said Rakitic of Wednesday’s game. “I was not in the club with him but when I came I asked to take the No 4 shirt because it was the number of Guardiola. It was really special for me.
“I know from what I hear inside the club that it is really special to play against a team of Guardiola. It will be really, really hard to play against City. They have changed their idea of playing. It is not the same team when we last played against them in the Champions League [in the 2014-15 round of 16 when Barcelona prevailed 3-1 on aggregate]. It will be really hard because Guardiola knows Barcelona. We have to play at our 100 per cent, not at 99 per cent if we are to beat City.”
Rakitic has always admired Barcelona where his boyhood idol, Robert Prosinecki, briefly played. “Robert is one of the greatest players not only in Croatia, but all over the world,” Rakitic said. Prosinecki was one of the stars of that fine Croatia team of the Nineties, after their re-admission into Fifa in 1992 after the break-up of Yugoslavia. “Within six years, we were playing in the semi-final of the World Cup [in ’98] and that made us really proud to be Croatian.
“It is something about the people from Balkans, we are really proud. Of course, people from Switzerland and Germany are in love with their country but there’s this extra 10 per cent in the Balkans. Croatia are really good at a lot of sports. We play the Davis Cup final [next month]. It is not normal for a country of five million people, with people outside.”
Rakitic was raised in Mohlin, near Basle, Switzerland, to parents who moved from Croatia. He speaks English, Spanish, German and Croatian fluently, and has a strong grasp of French and Italian. So what nationality does he feel? “It’s not easy to explain,” he said laughing. “I have to close my eyes and think hard! A big part of my heart is in Switzerland and Spain. My wife is from Seville, my older daughter was born in Seville and the younger one in Barcelona. But first of all I’m a Croatian.”
After playing for Switzerland Under-21, Rakitic had a huge decision to make between the land of his birth or the land of his forebears. “I was proud every time I wore the shirt of Switzerland but I had this feeling for Croatia,” he said. “I called Kobi Kuhn, the coach of the Swiss team, and said, ‘Twenty times thanks for everything but it is a decision of my heart and my heart points to Croatia.’ ” Many Swiss were enraged. “It was difficult for them.”
But he was determined to play for the country of his parents. “My parents taught me respect and to work hard.” He understood the sacrifices made by Luka and Kata. “My father started to play football in Bosnia-Herzegovina when he was 21 but it was a really hard situation there with the football, politically [with the local tensions]. So they went to Switzerland and I have now the life which my father would have liked.
“So I love it when he calls and I say, ‘Come to Barcelona, come to a game.’ And I know he starts to smile because he loves football. To have his son with the biggest club in the world! There’s nobody in the world more proud than him. After the Champions League final, he was with me in the hotel. For some minutes we were without words, just kisses, hugs. It was a really special moment. It was really crazy what I’ve done in the last years.”
Rakitic left home at 19, moving from Basle to Schalke and learning to look after himself on and off the pitch. “At home, Mum puts everything in place, but I did the cleaning, washing and learnt how to cook. I do vegetables, different spaghettis. I don’t like to open a cookery book and have to buy this and that. I like to open the fridge and say, ‘So! What’s inside? Let’s go!’ I’m a freestyler.”
Oranges were soon on the menu. “For me, joining Sevilla was about feeling. The sporting director, Monchi, is so special. He knows all the details about all the players, there and everywhere. Monchi and the [then] president [José María] Del Nido gave me this feeling that they’d do everything to make sure I enjoy my time in Seville. This was more important than money. I had just four months’ contract left with Schalke, and I could have waited and then take much more money because I was free. After 20 minutes, I told them I want to be part of your team now.”
Rakitic remembers well January 27, 2011, when he flew into Seville with his brother, Dejan. “We arrived at 10pm and had dinner with Monchi. The club said the next morning at 7am they’d come to take me to the hospital for the checks. I said to my brother, ‘Let’s go to a bar, have a drink, because I’m nervous. It’s impossible to sleep.’
“The bar was next to the hotel and my wife today [Raquel Muri] was working inside. She was really special. When we took our seats, another girl came to take the drinks. I said, ‘No, no, I want the other girl please.’ She arrived laughing. After she left, I told my brother, ‘I want to stay here and I will marry this girl.’ He told me, ‘You’re crazy.’
“She didn’t want to go out with me because I’m a footballer. She said, ‘You’re here for some months, some years, and then you go on your way.’ I put myself in her situation, ‘This blond guy came into the bar, from Croatia, doesn’t speak Spanish and now he wants to go out with me. What shall I do? See you.’ I felt really bad. But I persisted and after seven months we go out. Then I told her, ‘Now you have to be close to me.’
“She’s a Sevilla fan. All her family are. A lot of times she told me it makes her sad that I couldn’t know her grandfather who was really crazy about Sevilla. My wife told me that when Sevilla won he arrived home with presents for everyone. When Sevilla lost, he was not speaking with anybody. When he was dying, he told his daughter the last words, ‘So I know the moment is arriving, but if you have to take my clothes and everything, don’t touch my Sevilla watch.’
“I still speak with Monchi, people from Radio Sevilla and the kit guys. It was really hard to leave. I said to Monchi and the president, ‘I don’t need more money, I don’t want to say I am playing in England or Italy. I will leave only if it is for the biggest club in the world.’ And Barça came for me.”
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/henry-winter-meets-barcelonas-unsung-star-78shvkm2f
“After that game, I had an interview and they asked me, ‘What happened with Barça? You didn’t play well.’ I was thinking, ‘What?! We won 6-0.’ So I said, ‘OK, we’re going to work really hard so that in the next game we’ll be better.’ The pressure inspires me. This pressure is different to other clubs. That’s why Barça are the best club in the world.”
Barcelona finished the 2014-15 season with Rakitic, Luis Suárez and Neymar scoring in the Champions League final against Juventus, doing the treble and sating demand for at least a few weeks. “You have to understand that in Barcelona the pressure is so high that you have to win every game, and win with style,” continued Rakitic, talking at Barcelona’s training ground before Wednesday’s Champions League visit of Manchester City.
“When we then played the Club World Cup in Yokohama, it was crazy,” Rakitic said. “Small kids were waiting five or six hours just to say hello at the airport, the hotel, the stadium, everywhere. This is why they say Barça is ‘Mes Que Un Club’. The whole world loves Barça.
“People like to see Leo, Ney and Luis score all these goals. All the people are laughing, so happy but when you’re inside Barça it is different. They say, ‘You play with the best players, it is easy, no?’ It is not so easy as people think. There isn’t another team in the world that wants to attack all the time. We have the same idea when we play Real Madrid or a team from the Segunda Division.”
Rakitic contributes in many ways but his main role is to help construct the platform for the fabled MSN attack. “It’s like when three kids take the ball and just want to play. They want to score all the time. I remember last season, we were 6-0 in front [against Sporting de Gijón] and somebody didn’t give a pass to them and they were angry because they want to score again.
“They’re really hungry. Leo has won everything but he wants it again. Next season, he wants it again. When I arrived from Sevilla, I knew that if I have to run 10,000m for them, I will do this, and I’ll do this with a smile because I’m happy to be part of this.” Already superbly fit when he joined, Rakitic has still lost 4kg, dropping to 76kg (about 12st), becoming even more of an athlete in assisting the artists.
“If I can make Leo that little bit better, so I do it. Sometimes, I laugh on the pitch watching Leo’s skill. He’s a unique player. If you want to see skill like that, you have to take PlayStation! I don’t like playing against Leo in training. I like him in my team. It’s easy then! Of course I like Cristiano [Ronaldo], he’s a big player, and there are maybe ten players really special and I respect them and I say to all of them, ‘Congratulations’, but if we speak about the best, it is Leo Messi.
“Neymar is on the way to be the next best. Barça will do the best thing to sign a new contract with him [one is on the table which Neymar indicates he will sign] and maybe they can put a buyout clause as high as possible, because he will be the next Messi for sure. He’s scored [nearly] 300 goals and he’s only 24. He’s really special.
“The years at Liverpool were really important for Luis. There he takes the change from a good player to be the best striker in the world and then do the next step at Barcelona. When he’s not playing; it feels something’s wrong. Luis is one of the most important players for us. He’s a really good guy in the dressing room, one of the most open people who likes to joke.
“We lose the biggest character with Dani Alves [who moved to Juventus in July]. He was the most important guy for the dressing room.” Why? Clothes? Character? “Everything. But there are a lot of crazy — in a good way — guys like [Gerard] Piqué, Jordi Alba, Luis, Ney. It’s a really good dressing room.”
And what of Andrés Iniesta, so often the elegant harbinger of pain for English sides? “I always have this feeling that Andrés is dancing on the pitch,” Rakitic said, smiling. “It’s like when you hear classical music. Every step, he’s dancing with the ball.”
The likes of Iniesta and Messi are indelibly associated with the Barcelona of Pep Guardiola, City’s new head coach. “Of course it will be emotional,” said Rakitic of Wednesday’s game. “I was not in the club with him but when I came I asked to take the No 4 shirt because it was the number of Guardiola. It was really special for me.
“I know from what I hear inside the club that it is really special to play against a team of Guardiola. It will be really, really hard to play against City. They have changed their idea of playing. It is not the same team when we last played against them in the Champions League [in the 2014-15 round of 16 when Barcelona prevailed 3-1 on aggregate]. It will be really hard because Guardiola knows Barcelona. We have to play at our 100 per cent, not at 99 per cent if we are to beat City.”
Rakitic has always admired Barcelona where his boyhood idol, Robert Prosinecki, briefly played. “Robert is one of the greatest players not only in Croatia, but all over the world,” Rakitic said. Prosinecki was one of the stars of that fine Croatia team of the Nineties, after their re-admission into Fifa in 1992 after the break-up of Yugoslavia. “Within six years, we were playing in the semi-final of the World Cup [in ’98] and that made us really proud to be Croatian.
“It is something about the people from Balkans, we are really proud. Of course, people from Switzerland and Germany are in love with their country but there’s this extra 10 per cent in the Balkans. Croatia are really good at a lot of sports. We play the Davis Cup final [next month]. It is not normal for a country of five million people, with people outside.”
Rakitic was raised in Mohlin, near Basle, Switzerland, to parents who moved from Croatia. He speaks English, Spanish, German and Croatian fluently, and has a strong grasp of French and Italian. So what nationality does he feel? “It’s not easy to explain,” he said laughing. “I have to close my eyes and think hard! A big part of my heart is in Switzerland and Spain. My wife is from Seville, my older daughter was born in Seville and the younger one in Barcelona. But first of all I’m a Croatian.”
After playing for Switzerland Under-21, Rakitic had a huge decision to make between the land of his birth or the land of his forebears. “I was proud every time I wore the shirt of Switzerland but I had this feeling for Croatia,” he said. “I called Kobi Kuhn, the coach of the Swiss team, and said, ‘Twenty times thanks for everything but it is a decision of my heart and my heart points to Croatia.’ ” Many Swiss were enraged. “It was difficult for them.”
But he was determined to play for the country of his parents. “My parents taught me respect and to work hard.” He understood the sacrifices made by Luka and Kata. “My father started to play football in Bosnia-Herzegovina when he was 21 but it was a really hard situation there with the football, politically [with the local tensions]. So they went to Switzerland and I have now the life which my father would have liked.
“So I love it when he calls and I say, ‘Come to Barcelona, come to a game.’ And I know he starts to smile because he loves football. To have his son with the biggest club in the world! There’s nobody in the world more proud than him. After the Champions League final, he was with me in the hotel. For some minutes we were without words, just kisses, hugs. It was a really special moment. It was really crazy what I’ve done in the last years.”
Rakitic left home at 19, moving from Basle to Schalke and learning to look after himself on and off the pitch. “At home, Mum puts everything in place, but I did the cleaning, washing and learnt how to cook. I do vegetables, different spaghettis. I don’t like to open a cookery book and have to buy this and that. I like to open the fridge and say, ‘So! What’s inside? Let’s go!’ I’m a freestyler.”
Oranges were soon on the menu. “For me, joining Sevilla was about feeling. The sporting director, Monchi, is so special. He knows all the details about all the players, there and everywhere. Monchi and the [then] president [José María] Del Nido gave me this feeling that they’d do everything to make sure I enjoy my time in Seville. This was more important than money. I had just four months’ contract left with Schalke, and I could have waited and then take much more money because I was free. After 20 minutes, I told them I want to be part of your team now.”
Rakitic remembers well January 27, 2011, when he flew into Seville with his brother, Dejan. “We arrived at 10pm and had dinner with Monchi. The club said the next morning at 7am they’d come to take me to the hospital for the checks. I said to my brother, ‘Let’s go to a bar, have a drink, because I’m nervous. It’s impossible to sleep.’
“The bar was next to the hotel and my wife today [Raquel Muri] was working inside. She was really special. When we took our seats, another girl came to take the drinks. I said, ‘No, no, I want the other girl please.’ She arrived laughing. After she left, I told my brother, ‘I want to stay here and I will marry this girl.’ He told me, ‘You’re crazy.’
“She didn’t want to go out with me because I’m a footballer. She said, ‘You’re here for some months, some years, and then you go on your way.’ I put myself in her situation, ‘This blond guy came into the bar, from Croatia, doesn’t speak Spanish and now he wants to go out with me. What shall I do? See you.’ I felt really bad. But I persisted and after seven months we go out. Then I told her, ‘Now you have to be close to me.’
“She’s a Sevilla fan. All her family are. A lot of times she told me it makes her sad that I couldn’t know her grandfather who was really crazy about Sevilla. My wife told me that when Sevilla won he arrived home with presents for everyone. When Sevilla lost, he was not speaking with anybody. When he was dying, he told his daughter the last words, ‘So I know the moment is arriving, but if you have to take my clothes and everything, don’t touch my Sevilla watch.’
“I still speak with Monchi, people from Radio Sevilla and the kit guys. It was really hard to leave. I said to Monchi and the president, ‘I don’t need more money, I don’t want to say I am playing in England or Italy. I will leave only if it is for the biggest club in the world.’ And Barça came for me.”
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/henry-winter-meets-barcelonas-unsung-star-78shvkm2f
dakt
Active member
What job? Defensive. Sure. Offensive wise and game control...he sucked.
NorthernVictory
New member
Well we all already know he's not a controller. Should've bought Gundogan.
te amo barca
Blaugrana al vent
WTF? He was not even bad. Gundogan is much worse defensively, I would not trade Raki for any other player in the world.
evilhita666
Barçapocalypse NOW!
He ran his ass off and covered the whole pitch... Sure, he didn't do much in attack, but considering we play without a midfield going forward and City was pressing very well there's not much you can ask of him in that aspect...
I think he was a very good tactical game in a very specific role...
I think he was a very good tactical game in a very specific role...
NorthernVictory
New member
I didn't say Rakitic is not important . You're reading into things that I didn't mean to imply.
Rakitic is great, but it would he nice to have a controller like Modric, Kroos or Gundogan as well.
Rakitic is great, but it would he nice to have a controller like Modric, Kroos or Gundogan as well.
JerseyAddict
Well-known member
Maybe that's why he is not alone in our middfield?
There are others for controlling.Home of Barca Fans
