Rakitic In An Interview: “I Would Have Liked To Play With Manuel Neuer Again”

With Hajduk Split since summer

At the end of the year, we’re taking some of our interview highlights from 2024 out of the archive. We published the conversation with Ivan Rakitic in September of this year.

Even at 36 years old, there is still no end in sight for Ivan Rakitic. The midfielder moved to Hajduk Split this summer, his first move to Croatia, for whom he made 106 international appearances. In an interview with Transfermarkt, Rakitic talks about his world career, his best, but also some missed titles, a failed move to FC Bayern and the Bundesliga. The 2018 runner-up also reveals which league he would have liked to play in.

Transfer market: Mr. Rakitic, how did your move to Hajduk come about?

Ivan Rakitic: Nikola Kalinić was sports director at Hajduk and is a friend of mine. He had started bombarding my phone. (laughs) Also, my best friend is from Split. He’s been telling me for years that if I want to do something good for him, I should come to Hajduk. At first it was all a joke, but it became more and more concrete. A few months and years ago I would never have expected this. That wasn’t actually planned. But different circumstances came together and as a family we decided that maybe this was what was missing in my career. I also felt like I wanted to give something back to Croatia. It was not a decision against Al-Shabab or Saudi Arabia.

Transfer market: Will Hajduk be your last stop?

Rakitic: I don’t want to talk about the fact that my career is slowly coming to an end. (laughs) But as long as I feel the butterflies in my stomach, I’m healthy and I can keep up in terms of fitness, I definitely want to keep going. We’ll see whether it will be another one, two, three or five years.

Transfer market: You became a professional at your training club FC Basel and then played with FC Schalke 04, FC Sevilla and FC Barcelona in the Champions League. You signed another top contract with Al-Shabab – and now you went to Croatia. What else could have topped your career?

Rakitic: I will never forgive myself for never playing in Serie A. I would have really liked to play in Italy and was often close to it, but unfortunately it never worked out. That’s a shame. But I can really be incredibly proud of my career. Little by little I went up and up, and every station was incredibly important to me.

Transfer market: Their trophy cabinet is full: 13 titles with Barça alone, two more with Sevilla and one each with Schalke and Basel. Which title is most meaningful to you?

Rakitic: The most important title is the Europa League victory with Sevilla in 2014. For me that was a kind of jump to the highest level in Europe. After that I moved to Barça. But I think there could have been a few more titles, or almost should have been. (laughs) I would have loved to have become Swiss champions with Basel or played in the 2011 DFB Cup final with Schalke. And I still need more Champions League wins with Barça. With all due respect, we gave up two or three titles.

Ivan Rakitic: Was lucky enough to be able to do what I love most

Transfer market: Coming from the small Swiss community of Möhlin, you have gradually reached the top of the world. In 2014, at the age of 26, you moved to Barcelona at your sporting peak and won the trophy in your first year. What went through your mind when you realized you had made it to the top?

Rakitic: There is no room for dreaming that. It’s incredible to think that I scored the first goal for Barça in the 2015 Champions League final. It all started in the village. I can still remember when I was eight years old: there was a tournament and we played against Basel in the final. We won 2-0, I scored both goals. Afterwards the coach came to my father and asked him if I would like to train with Basel. Two weeks later I was there. I’ve always seen it as being lucky to be able to do what I love most. When you do what you love most, you are simply happy. Then it doesn’t matter whether I play at Barça or in the village in Switzerland. I get up every morning at seven o’clock and drive to training; there is nothing better for me. That’s why I hope it will continue like this for a long time.

Transfer market: Nowadays, professionals change for sometimes very high fees. You, on the other hand, were the most expensive when you moved to FC Barcelona at 18 million euros; the “Welt” once called you “Barça’s biggest bargain”. Do you agree?

Rakitic: It can be hard for us players to understand when someone spends 50 million, 60 million, 70 million on you. Maybe it was my luck that this never happened to me and I never had that pressure. I was in the last year of my contract with Sevilla, which is why it came about like that. It often depends on the contract situation. What’s important is that it’s the right time and everything fits. It is important to understand that it is not the players’ issue, but the clubs’ issue. Football is the most important sport and there is a lot of money in circulation.

Transfer market: In autumn 2018 you reached your highest market value of your career with 70 million euros. Would you also classify this time as your sporting highlight?

Rakitic: Overall, it was a great time for me. Maybe I actually played my best football back then. There was the World Cup, the hype in the media, just everything surrounding it. But various factors play a role in such an assessment. I can also understand that you have a higher market value at Barça than at Sevilla or another team. What was always most important to me was that I could just be me.

Transfer market: You have often been asked about your teammates Lionel Messi, Andrés Iniesta & Co., so let’s turn the tables: How have these players benefited from you?

Rakitic: What else could I have taught these boys? What could I have said to them? Or how could a new coach have made them even better? That simply doesn’t work. For me it was just about looking back at that time after their careers ended and thinking how great it was to play with Ivan Rakitic. Then I’m happy. (laughs) When I was at Barça I always said: If I can help Leo, Xavi, Iniesta, Neymar and so on just a little bit, then I have achieved a lot. And I think I was able to contribute my part in terms of football.

Rakitic’s move to FC Bayern failed – I would have liked to play with Neuer again

Transfer market: Between 2007 and 2011 you played 135 times for Schalke. What do you particularly remember from this time?

Rakitic: I can think of a lot of things, good and not so good. Above all, I learned that sometimes you have to fall on your face. (laughs) But I enjoyed Schalke one hundred percent for three and a half years! I really only have the best words for Schalke, the Bundesliga and Germany. It’s a shame it eventually came to an end. For me, the Bundesliga is perhaps the best league for young players. I’m really convinced of that. It’s a kind of complete package: the football is good, the tactics are good, the physicality is good. You get everything. In addition, everything around it is well organized.

Transfer market: During and after your time at Schalke, you were repeatedly linked to other Bundesliga clubs – most notably with FC Bayern in 2019. Why didn’t anything come of it?

Rakitic: It was a bit like Serie A: sometimes it feels like you’re close, but in the end you’re far away. Unfortunately it didn’t work. I would have liked to play with Manuel Neuer again. He is a great friend of mine. I continue to watch him on the TV and cheer him on. I have huge respect for the Bundesliga and FC Bayern.

Transfer market: For no other club did you play as long or as often as for Sevilla FC (323 appearances). Please explain to us your specific connection to the club.

Rakitic: Sometimes things happen in life that you have no control over. When I arrived in Seville in 2011, I didn’t know what to expect. I was the little blonde from Switzerland who played at Schalke. And then I flew there without being able to speak a word of Spanish. But from day one I had the right connection to everything: to the club management, to the fans, to Spanish football. And I also met my wife on the first day. I can say that I was not born a boy from Seville, but I will die as one. I am incredibly proud of having taken this step back then. Seville is my home.

Transfer market: In 2020 you returned to Seville for another three and a half years.

Rakitic: I was afraid to tell my wife that the then sports director, Monchi, had called me. She would have packed her bags immediately. (laughs) That’s why I didn’t tell her about it until a few weeks later, when everything was done. It was clear to me that I wanted to go back again. I really wanted to win another title with Jesús Navas, and we achieved that in the Europa League in 2023.

Transfer market: You have to tell us one more thing: Why do Sevilla dominate the Europa League so much?

Rakitic: I can’t explain that. Really! There aren’t the right words for it. It is something very special and mainly has to do with the people in and around the club. We often had a full house in the league, but it was always a special feeling at the European games. When we won the Europa League in 2023, we were in a difficult situation in the league and also had tough opponents in Europe. But after the 2-2 draw at Manchester United in the quarter-final first leg, we players just laughed and said to ourselves that they didn’t know we were going to win. The second leg ended 3-0 for us and an older man who has always gone to the stadium said to me afterwards that it was the best night he had experienced. I still get goosebumps today! You can’t describe these moments, you just have to absorb them. The pride of being able to be a part of it predominates.

Transfer market: They are just three games short of reaching the 100-game mark in the Champions League. Will we see you again in the premier class?

Rakitic: Hopefully! That would also mean that I became champion with Hajduk. I would be okay with that. (laughs) Seriously: Of course it would be nice to reach this mark. If someone had told me before my first Champions League game that I would get so close to this number, I would have thought they were crazy . It is every player’s dream to play in the Champions League. And I was even allowed to win it and score a goal in the final.

Transfer market: Toni Kroos returned to the German national team before the European Championships – you could have done the same with Croatia. But you refused to return five years after your last international match, despite discussions. What stopped you from making a comeback?

Rakitic: It was never actually a serious issue. But when I resigned in 2020, I told national coach Zlatko Dalic that I would of course be available if there was a problem and he needed me. He and the association could count on me, no matter what game or tournament and no matter what role. But I would never think of forcing this myself. After all, I had decided that it was over for me. The boys who took part in the qualification deserved to play in the tournament too.

Interview: Pascal Martin (p_martin)