Barcelona Croatian grateful to the man who signed him

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Immediately developing a rapport with his coach upon signing for Barcelona, Ivan Rakitic understood exactly what Luis Enrique wanted from him, and so for the Croatian, losing him is a huge blow.

The midfielder has admitted that one day he hopes to link up with the Spaniard again and also his former Sevilla coach Unai Emery.

" I would love to work for them again, yes of course," he explained to the Sportsman's Club.

"They have been two fundamental men in my trajectory and are similar in the sense that they are crazy about football and do not want to lose - ever. Even at marbles.

"Luis Enrique is a very important loss, he showed a lot of interest in bringing me to Barcelona and gave me all his confidence during the past three years."

Rakitic believes that Sevilla's former director of football, Monchi, was also a key man in his life and helped him grow into the player he is today.

" He is like my older brother and was at my wedding," the midfielder continued.

"I will always remember some words that he said to me that day.

"When I do think about them, I get hairs on the back of my neck standing up."

Earlier in his career, Rakitic plied his trade at Schalke and he couldn't believe it when Real Madrid legend Raul joined.

"At first I thought it was a joke, why would the greatest player in [Real] Madrid's history be coming to play here?" he said.

"It was a great source of pride to play with him, he had a sparkle in his eyes that made you think, 'This guy has won and knows how to do it, he smells victory and he goes for it.'

"It was no coincidence that we reached the semi-finals of the Champions League that year."

With regards to the season just gone, he remembered the Champions League comeback against Paris Saint-Germain as a particular highlight.

" The PSG game was like the season was over and they gave us the title back that night, because that's how strong the emotion was," he recalled.

" But of course we lost to Deportivo [La Coruna] three days later and it was very hard to return to reality."

On a more personal level the player recognised that his move to Sevilla changed his life because it was in Seville where he met his wife, and it was love at first sight.

"It was January 27, the same day I signed and did my medical," Rakitic said.

"The day was very long and I went down with my brother to take something to the hotel bar before bed and I said I'm going to sign for Sevilla and I'm going to marry that girl who's working as a waitress."