EXCLUSIVE: Ivan Rakitic - 'If you can't enjoy Barça, I don't know where you will enjoy yourself'

EXCLUSIVE: Ivan Rakitic - 'If you can't enjoy Barça, I don't know where you will enjoy yourself'

The experience of playing for Barcelona has exceeded his expectations. Ivan Rakitic is one of the regulars in this Barça side and he enjoys forming part of the best team in world. 

Born in Switzerland, he’s lived in Germany and Seville previously. Now he’s in Barcelona. And he plays for Croatia. 

Where are you from!?

Good question. I feel Croatian, of course, which is why I decided to play for the national team. I played from U15 to U21 with Switzerland and then I thought I’d make the change and play for Croatia. It was a decision I made with my heart. I feel Croatian, but I’m also grateful for everything Switzerland gave me. As time passes, with my private life, I feel very, very, very Sevillian, very Andalucian. My private life has changed a lot thanks to my wife [who is from Seville]. 

What did you think of Barça when you were young? 

I have to say that since I was a kid I’ve been a big Barça fan because at the time [Robert] Prosinecki was playing form them. He was my idol always and…

Then he played in Madrid…

Well, but I knew him here! 

Where will you live when you retire? 

Asking me today I would say Seville, but you don’t know what will happen in the coming years. Maybe we like it so much [in Barcelona] that we stay. Or maybe tomorrow we go… I don’t know, to the other side of the world. Right now we are super happy in Barcelona. My daughter’s started school and we found the perfect place for her. We’re really happy here, to be honest. 

Was your time with Sevilla was necessary to make it to Barça? 

It was good in terms of maturing in various ways. Football is not just football [at Barcelona]. You don’t just finish training and nothing else. Football is much more. It’s not like an eight hour job, football is 24 hours. 

Have you found what you expected? 

No, everything surprises you, because the club is the biggest in the world. Not just for the club, but all the surroundings, too. It’s unique. There’s nothing equal to it. But I’ve also said I’m not going to kill myself thinking about things. I just what to enjoy myself, work hard and earn the confidence of my team-mates, the coaching staff and the president.

How will you achieve that? 

Well, trying to improve and trying to see all the pressure that there is as a positive, good pressure to enjoy football. If you can’t enjoy Barça, I don’t know where you will enjoy yourself. 

Did you enjoy the first half of your first season? 

Well, that is football. It wasn’t painted in the best way, but for me it was… the club or this team is at such a high level that you’re not allowed to win only for winning. You have to win in a way which allows the people to say, yes that is Barça. 

Is it an eternally unsatisfied club? 

No, not unsatisfied, but the demands are very high. The people, not just Barça’s fans, but football people in general… Everyone expects a lot from the team. 

Was Anoeta not a point of inflexion, but an evolution? 

I think everything, maybe. I remember last season, the third or fourth game of the season, we beat Granada 6-0, but the next day it was if we’d won 1-0 with a penalty in the 90th minute. And someone said ‘well, but it is Barça’. 

And you began to understand where you are...

Yes. It’s not just training and that’s it. You have to do more. I’m going to stay an hour longer in the gym. I’m going to do two baths to recover well. You have to do everything, much more than before. Now I do a lot more than when I was in Germany or Sevilla. I always want to be on the pitch. 

Can you enjoy it still with such high demands? 

Yes, a lot. Last year, when we won the Champions League I said to my family and my friends: “Honestly, it’s a shame the season has ended.” I felt so strong, you feel so superior. I don’t want it to end, I want it to go on a little more because I want to play more. 

Why did you find yourself so well on the pitch?  

I was enjoying everything, every training session, the rondos… You are so happy that you think: I wish the first game of the next season was here. At the same time, this summer, I got married and we went on our honeymoon and, to be honest, I was wanting to be back on the pitch again. 

Did you tell your wife!? 

Truthfully, you’re wanting to be back on the pitch with your teammates and to continue fighting once again.

You’ll be there again this season...? 

You’ve said it. We are there, but there’s still a bit to go, a lot of work, we know that after such a good year everyone is targeting the champions. Everyone wants to beat Barça and will fight a lot harder. 

What do you think of the rotations? Do they go down well with you? 

Honestly, no. Sitting on the bench I don’t like. If a player likes being on the bench then they have a serious lack of ambition. We are a team but you fight to be there [in the XI]. To rest, you have to look for your time. To give an example, I like Guardiola’s words about Lewandoswki, saying that he’s the best professional he’s seen in his life. I want to reach that level. 

That Guardiola says you’re the best professional he’s seen? 

No… that my manager here says it. I live for that. I live for football, to be 100 percent, to enjoy it and to enjoy it you must be at the top of your game. 

Is it a big change to go from being captain at Sevilla to not having the armband? 

Truthfully, yes, but you understand where you are. You know that you’re playing with the best players in history, that you have people that are the best in their position. I want to give my all and the most important thing is to do it with them on the pitch. For me, it’s no good coming to Barça, signing a contract and then little more. No. If I come here, I want to try, at very least, to do it in the best possible way.  

In your presentation you said you want to make history and win everything. You’ve already done that. What’s left? 

Hahaha. Well, thanks to the president for giving me a few more years then. I want to continue doing it. I’m excited, I want to repeat [last season] every year. We’re on track. 

Are you ready in the case you don’t win? 

I came from Sevilla and we had seasons there where we didn’t win anything. I know and understand when you go on a run where things don’t go well, you have to look for a change of dynamic. When the moment arrives, and it will arrive, that we don’t win titles, because that’s normal, you have to bounce back with a tremendous effort. 

Do you think Barca have changed their style of play? 

We are different players, maybe that’s what it is. But to say a change of style… In football, the opposition condition how you play a little. If they give you space, you try and take advantage. I work for that, to see the weak points in the rival. If tomorrow I sit on the sofa, maybe my moment won’t arrive. For that reason I want to give what I can give. I cannot give what Andres [Iniesta] or Xavi have given, but I can give myself. I want to be Ivan Rakitic. If I can improve the team a little, perfect, that’s what I am, that’s why I work. 

Does the team work for the front three? 

In the end, yes. They have earned it. They have total freedom to move around because they are the best and if we have them, we must take advantage of them. But they know that, too, and see it like this. They know that behind them they have the best. But we know that if we can get the ball forward quicker, better for them. But we know when we need help to be stronger at the back, they will come back.

An exchange? 

Exactly, they know that if we don’t push forward when we attack, we’ll be just as lost when we defend if they don’t come back. 

It’s a great show of humility from players like yourself, Iniesta, Busquets, Pique - world stars that work for three team-mates…

But they’ve earned it. It’s not just because we feel like that. We know that with the quality they have, it’s normal that they’ll sometimes cover less ground and when you see the statistics… that does not matter so much. Each person has to know their role in the team. I can’t dribble like Ney, shoot like Leo and I don’t have the strength of Luis, but I have other things that maybe they don’t have. 

Like what? 

Keeping the lines together, helping in defence. We know that they play high-risk football, one on one… when you lose the ball, you have to be there because if you recover it, the space opens up and if the first attempt does’t work, the second does. We have to be together, help each other. Keeping that way, hopefully we will continue to be as strong as we are. 

Is the objective to be the first to win back-to-back Champions Leagues in the modern era? 

[Smiles] The truth, I tell you with all sincerity, is that our objective is to win each game, to be at a very high level. In the dressing room when it’s not a Champions League game, we don’t talk about the Champions League, we talk about what’s coming next. We know where we have to go. It’s an objective, of course, but it’s an objective because it’s a competition we’re doing well in, not because we won it last season and now we want to win it again. No, we want to win it always. With all respect to the other teams, we always want to be at 100 percent. We want to win always. 

But it’s not an added motivation to be the first? 

We don’t need a special motivation to want to win. It’s not necessary. It [would be] nice to say we achieved it and were the first, of course, but it’s not our primary objective. Firstly, we have La Liga. Because that’s our day to day. The toughest competition and I think the most difficult. 

Seriously? 

Yes, because it’s all year. There are three months when you don’t play the Champions League. And during these three moments we have, I don’t know, 20 league games. La Liga is what gives you bread every day. And after, of course there is more interest because [the Champions League] is an international tournament. You don’t just want to be the best in Spain, but in Europe and then you fight to win the Club World Cup. But we take it step by step with humility. 

Where does a player enjoy it most - at Camp Nou celebrating a treble or on the pitch? 

Sincerely, I enjoy it more on the pitch with all the adrenaline.

And if you score in the final in Berlin…

[His face lights up] I’m not getting started…  

Is it the most important goal of your career? 

Yes, yes. To find a word to describe it is impossible. There isn’t one which can explain what you feel in that moment. Because you want to hug the whole stadium. Not just the three by your side, but the whole stadium. You want to open your arms and hug everyone. I thought of my wife, my daughter, my family, everyone there. And you see your team-mates… my hair stood up. Bufffff. How great… the whole world sees that game. You’re there to help your team.

And when the game ends and you’re in the shower…

Before the shower I sat down for a moment, I took my daughter to the dressing room. After jumping and shouting, you sit for a moment and the only thing missing was my daughter saying “Papa, what are you doing?” You cannot be happier than in that moment, honestly. 

Is winning a drug? 

Yes - and you always want more. You always want to improve. You don’t just want to win, you want to get better in the next game. When we say we want to improve and people say what? Well, a lot of things. 

Like what? 

Like on Sunday when Sevilla took the lead. 

But the rival also plays… 

Of course, but you want it for yourself, not for your rival. You don’t want to give them anything. You want them to do the minimum damage, of course, which is almost impossible, but you always aim for that. You want more, to be better… you want to fight - even for a throw in. You want it to be yours, not the other teams. When you reach that, you feel good. 

The key to this Barça, over the last decade, is its desire to win, to never conform? 

Yes, a lot - a big part. I’ve been here one and a half years in a dressing room with guys who have won it all. I arrived after a difficult year but we won it all. You arrive and you see this desire and you say ‘I have won a Europa League with Sevilla’, which is good, and a cup in Switzerland. And you say ’Now I’m going to fight 10 times harder, if I can.’ I will eat the entire pitch if I have to. I don’t want it more than Andres or Leo, for sure, but I will do all I can to be there with them. 

Do you feel like your fighting in a hostile involvement? Not all the football world seem to be too friendly…

There is tension, yes, but we have to convert that into something good. We play when we have to, where we have to and we’re going to show that we can still be the best. In a sporting manner. Without problems. The important thing is to demonstrate what we are; that we are fighting for everything. 

Should those that move things around feel impotent? 

No, that is why I say everyone has to do their own thing. I understand that in some places we have more followers and more love than in others. Just like I’ll like one film more than another, but I’m not going to think about what others have to do. I am going to think about what benefits me and those around me.