In the autumn of his career, midfield star Ivan Rakitic is mourning a failed move to FC Bayern. Now he wants to give something back to his homeland.
Looking at his CV, Ivan Rakitic really can’t complain – after all, the midfield star played alongside Lionel Messi during his time at FC Barcelona. But looking back, the now 36-year-old is particularly sad about a failed move to FC Bayern.
{
“placeholderType”: “MREC”
}
“Sometimes it feels like you’re close, but in the end you’re far away. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out,” Rakitic said in an interview with transfermarkt.de.
Rakitic on Neuer: “Great friend of mine”
At the same time, the former Schalke player also revealed the reason why he would have liked to move to Bayern: “I would have liked to play with Manuel Neuer again. He is a great friend of mine. I continue to watch him on TV and cheer him on. I have enormous respect for the Bundesliga and FC Bayern,” said Rakitic, who played for the Royal Blues from 2007 to 2011 and knows Neuer from those days.
Rakitic looks back on his three and a half years at Schalke with mixed feelings. “I can think of a lot of things, good and not so good. Above all, I learned that you have to fall flat on your face sometimes,” explained the Swiss-born player with a laugh.
{
“placeholderType”: “MREC”
}
In general, however, his summary was positive. He “enjoyed his time at Schalke one hundred percent,” said Rakitic. “I really only have the best words for Schalke, the Bundesliga and Germany. It’s a shame that it all came to an end at some point.” In general, the Bundesliga is “perhaps the best league for young players.”
Rakitic lands at Hajduk Split: “At first it was all a joke”
Schalke was the first foreign stop for the Swiss-born player in 2007, who received his footballing education at FC Basel. Rakitic then spent most of his career in Seville, playing for Barca from 2014 to 2020 before moving to Saudi Arabia to play for Al-Shabab. This summer, the 106-time Croatian international returned to Europe and signed for Croatia for the first time.
A friend, the now-sacked sports director Nikola Kalinic, lured Rakitic to Hajduk Split in the summer. “He started bombarding my cellphone,” Rakitic explained. “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.”
The move was not actually planned. “But various circumstances came together and as a family we decided that this was perhaps what was missing in my career. I also felt like I wanted to give something back to Croatia,” added Rakitic.
