Ivan Rakitic

Ivan Rakitic is a Croatian professional footballer

Ivan Rakitić ( born 10 March 1988) is a Croatian professional footballer who plays as a central or attacking midfielder for Spanish club Barcelona and the Croatia national team.

Rakitić started his professional career at Basel and spent two seasons with them before he was signed by Schalke 04. After spending three-and-a-half seasons in the Bundesliga, he was signed by Sevilla in January 2011. Two years later, Rakitić was confirmed as the club captain and captained the team to UEFA Europa League triumph. In June 2014, Barcelona and Sevilla reached an agreement on the transfer of Rakitić. In his first season with Barça, he won the treble of La Liga, Copa del Rey and UEFA Champions League. He scored the first goal of the 2015 Champions League Final and became the first player ever to win the Champions League a year after winning the Europa League while playing for two clubs.

At 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, the 2014 FIFA World Cup, UEFA Euro 2016 and the 2018 FIFA World Cup, winning a runners-up medal in the latter tournament, and earning him over 90 caps.

On 23 April 2017, Rakitić scored the second goal in a 3–2 away victory against Real Madrid in El Clásico.

2017–18 season

On 12 September 2017, Rakitić netted a goal against Juventus in the 2017–18 UEFA Champions League, as Barcelona defeated the last season's Italian champions 3–0 at home.

On 4 June 2018, Rakitić was named in Croatia's 23-man squad for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. On 21 June 2018, Rakitić scored Croatia's third goal in a 3–0 victory over Argentina in their second group stage match of the tournament.

On 1 July, Rakitić scored the winning penalty kick in the penalty shoot-out against Denmark, as Croatia progressed to the quarter-final. One week later, on 7 July, Rakitić again scored the winning penalty kick in the penalty shoot-out against Russia, as Croatia progressed to the semi-final.Croatia reached the final of the tournament, where they were defeated 4–2 by France on 15 July.