Ivan Rakitic has enjoyed two successful spells playing for Sevilla - but his personal life has benefitted greatly while being at the club, too
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Ivan Rakitic joined Sevilla for his first spell at the club in January 2011 as a 22-year-old, looking to fight for his place in the starting XI under manager Gregorio Manzano and later his replacement Marcelino.
While he would later go on to win the Europa League with Sevilla in 2013/14, becoming one of the standout players in La Liga and earning a summer move to Barcelona, Rakitic admits the real motivation to succeed in his first seven months in Spain was to convince his future wife to go out with him.
"It is true, and it’s still true today," Rakitic told FourFourTwo when he spoke to us recently. "I met her on my first day in Seville – I was just aiming to go to the bar to have a drink with my brother, and she was working there.
Rakitic met his wife at Sevilla, and moved with her to Barcelona in 2014 (Image credit: Getty Images)
"Different clubs were calling me, saying, 'Don’t sign for Sevilla' and wanting me to move to other countries, but I told my brother that I’d already given my word to Sevilla’s president. I said, 'Tomorrow morning, I have to sign. I will stay here and I will marry that girl.'
"So that I could speak to her, I used to go back into that bar all the time, to order the same coffee again and again! Everything was really special from the first day: to see her, to meet her and finally, after seven months, to be with her.
Rakitic lifted the Europa League for the second time in his second spell at the club (Image credit: Getty Images)
"Later I married her and today we are close to 12 years together," he adds. "We have two daughters. My daughter’s birthday is today – she’s 10 years old. All of this is like a Hollywood story for me to say to Brad Pitt or George Clooney, 'Do you want to do a new movie?' Sevilla did so much for my professional career, but also for my private life."
Indeed, nine years after winning the Europa League for the first time with Sevilla, Rakitic lifted the same trophy last season, during his second spell at the club. In between he won countless trophies at Barcelona, but the love he has for the Andalusian city and club is clear to see.
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Chris joined FourFourTwo in 2015 and has reported from more than 20 countries, in places as varied as Ivory Coast and the Arctic Circle. He's interviewed Pele, Zlatan and Santa Claus (it's a long story), as well as covering the World Cup, AFCON and the Clasico. He previously spent 10 years as a newspaper journalist, and completed the 92 in 2017.
