Ivan Rakitic (36 years old) has always been known for speaking clearly. He did it again this Monday on the program ‘The Hit’from Canal Sur Radio. The Croatian, who left Sevilla in January 2024, went to Al-Shabab and now plays for Hadjuk Split, opened up about some controversial chapters that have marked his career. Since the collapse in Europe that Barça suffered in 2019 and 2020 to his time at the Pizjuán and his departure for disagreements with the coach, Quique Sánchez Flores.
His statements about how ‘his’ Barça got punctured are shocking. The Croatian’s diagnosis revealed that The problem was more about ambition than football. A sincerity that draws attention. “For me, with all due respect and affection to all the teams, at Barcelona we don’t win more titles because of boredom and thinking about things other than football. I’ve heard many of your colleagues say they’ve never seen anything like this.“, he said.
Rakitic is referring to the 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons. Although in the first two of them Barça won the League, their resounding failures in the Champions League covered any euphoria of success. Then, coached by Ernesto Valverde, the Blaugrana succumbed to Roma in the quarterfinals (they wasted a 4-1 in the first leg and lost 3-0 in the return), against Liverpool (won 3-0 in the first leg of the semi-finals and collapsed in the return leg with a 4-0 deficit) and against Bayern (2-8 in the quarter-finals).
“We screwed up against Roma and Liverpool, but I am convinced that boredom affected us“We feel that we are too superior. If you don’t give your all, you don’t win. If we had maintained our hunger, we would have won one or two more Champions Leagues,” he concluded.
He then addressed the difficult current situation at Sevilla and his departure from the Andalusian team. His disagreements with Quique Sánchez Flores were no secret, but he showed them again in the interview on South Channel Radio: “It’s time to support the club. It’s clear that I didn’t understand Quique Flores.I didn’t agree with the words he was giving. I’m glad you guys are saying that I could have been there, but decisions have to be made. Not to add fuel to the fire.”
Rakitic continued to point out the person he considers responsible for his failure to retire at Sevilla: “It’s not that I could stand it or not, but I didn’t agree with the things that were happening.“I’m not thinking about myself, but about the group and Sevilla. I didn’t agree with the way things were being done. I’ll put up with Sevilla for as long as it takes, but if there’s someone who sees it differently, I don’t agree. I wasn’t wrong, because I didn’t like the interviews he gave. He was totally wrong; I’m not surprised… I made the right decision.”
And that was to go to Al-Shabab, although his Arab experience was short-lived. return to his country, to Hadjuk Split“It was a decision made by the heart and the final push came from my wife, Raquel. She told me that she would love to go with her whole family. Simply to have that pride of being able to be in my country, play in the Croatian League and show my country to my family.”
Finally, he referred to the Sevilla is going through a difficult time in La LigaHe asked for a vote of confidence for the group and the coach, García Pimienta: “We are going to trust; I want to be very positive, believe in the manager and his coaching staff. I have seen him work in the sports city and that bit of luck is needed. We have played some good games, so I want to be positive for everything that is to come.”
