Ivan Rakitic Defiantly Says He Is Not ‘Sack Of Potatoes’ And Will Decide FC Barcelona Future Himself

Today marking a month since all activity at FC Barcelona was suspended, the club’s soccer players have been training and giving interviews from home.

His future thrown into doubt while linked to former club Sevilla in a part-exchange deal for defender Diego Carlos, or a straight $22mn sale, Ivan Rakitic is the latest star to receive the local press by video chat.

In an exclusive interview with Mundo Deportivo, the Croat has defiantly insisted he is not a “sack of potatoes” and will decide his Barca future.

Laughing that his name has been a subject of transfer gossip not just throughout the break imposed on sports by the coronavirus pandemic, but also the past two years, Rakitic said that being able to play at the Camp Nou is “perfect”.

“What I want is to enjoy and help the team. I had a very strange first part of the season, very uncomfortable and surprising for me, but from there I have to learn several things and improve. Sometimes things happen that you do not understand, but you should not understand [them] but accept them,” he explained. 

“Hopefully I can finish this contract year,” he went on. “If it can’t be, we’ll sit down, but now the most important thing is to be on top and finish the season in the best possible way. Then everything will be analyzed, but my idea is to end that contract [which expires in 2021].”

Asked if he had received an explanation as to why he had gone from being a key player to second string behind Arthur and Frenkie de Jong, Rakitic answered: “No, the truth is no [I haven’t], and with the people I have spoken [to], they have not been able to give me an explanation or something concrete. Everyone tells me that things happen in football that you don’t understand, that you have to push forward. What hurt me the most was not playing or not playing, but the way [it was done].  

“Last year was the best of the six I have had here. I was bothered by the way [I was dropped], just like it had been in previous years. I was very surprised, I don’t understand it, but I’m going to accept it because what I want is the best for the team, my teammates and the club. The results were not the best and I was not counted on [by the coach], and that hurt me a lot.”

It was posed to Rakitic whether he had been vicitmized for having not entered into “an operation that the club had planned last summer” – i.e., those which attempted to see Neymar back in Catalonia or Juventus forward Federico Bernardeschi don Blaugrana.

“It might be so, [or] it might not, but I have always wanted to be straight,” Rakitic admitted.

“If they wanted me to have gone to another team, no matter where, I would have liked to have been told, just as you and I are talking now. I have shown in the previous five years that you can always count on me. Surely I have done many favors for colleagues and coaches, and I have shown that you can always count on me, and if that was the reason, it would hurt more,” he concluded.