This article is part of the Guardian’s World Cup 2014 Experts’ Network, a co-operation between 32 of the best media organisations from the countries who have qualified for the finals in Brazil. theguardian.com is running previews from four countries each day in the run-up to the tournament kicking off on 12 June.

Each summer, the Swiss border town of Moehlin really comes alive for a day. That is the day when Moehlin’s most celebrated son, Ivan Rakitic, brings a whiff of top European football into the otherwise sleepy place, tucked safely among the canton of Aargau’s wooded hills just south of Germany.

Rakitic owns the local club NK Pajde, whose name can most accurately be translated from Croatian as “chums” or “buddies”. They play in lower Swiss divisions and are entirely a product of a family affair: Ivan’s dad is the chairman, his uncle is the director of football and his brother the player-manager. Ivan himself is the sugar-daddy.

“Yes, that’s about right – but it’s also a hobby of mine,” he laughs. “Most players there are my old friends, neighbours, relatives … These are the people who I played with as a kid, they are my lifelong buddies. We have a family atmosphere at the club and like to hang out on the football pitch. I still sometimes play, or even train with them whenever I get the chance.”

Once a year in the off-season, Rakitic gets his other friends, some of them Switzerland and Croatia international players, to come to his hometown and play an exhibition game against Pajde. The word on the streets of Moehlin is that he even got some of his old pals – like Germany’s Manuel Neuer, who was his team-mate at Schalke – to chip in for the club’s budget.

His birthplace means a lot to him. It was here that he first fell in love with his parents’ home country, watching Croatia play at the 1998 World Cup. “When Robert Prosinecki scored for us against Jamaica,” Rakitic told FourFourTwo, “I was so happy that I ran onto the balcony and climbed the fence in euphoria. To be fair, our flat was only on the first floor, so it couldn’t really end up tragically if I fell over...”

It was also here that, when Rakitic Jnr was 16, that his father, Luka, had a very serious and potentially life-changing conversation with a distinguished guest – a member of José Mourinho’s coaching staff who tried to woo Ivan to Chelsea, offering Luka a job in London.

By that time, his son had already been a standout in Basel’s youth ranks and the family kindly rejected the offer, but not without much consideration. And it was also here that Ivan informed his dad of his decision to represent Croatia – the player later said the family never tried to force him into making the choice, but that his dad shed “tears of joy” upon being told what it was. It wasn’t the easiest decision to make and the family was under enormous pressure. At the time, they were receiving anonymous phone calls and letters telling them to move out of Switzerland – and even death threats – almost on a daily basis, Luka Rakitic later revealed. Ivan was always reluctant to talk about it; he waited for the dust to settle and eventually it did.

This year the feast in Moehlin will have to wait until after the World Cup, where Rakitic will try to lead Croatia to glory – or at least past the group stage. He’s now one of the key players in the team and his playmaking partnership with Real Madrid’s Luka Modric forms the most exciting creative axis for the Vatreni since that bronze-winning generation of 1998.

The team had hit a few bumps on the road to Brazil, but things started to fall into place with the return of Niko Kovac. Brought up in the diaspora himself, he welcomed the 19-year-old Swiss-born novice into the team as his captain back in 2007; now he’s Rakitic’s new gaffer.

In Croatia, Rakitic is remembered as a tragic figure of their last big tournament two years ago. He had the best chance in the deciding European Championship group game against Spain, but Iker Casillas saved his close-range header, taken after running across half the pitch and escaping Sergio Busquets’s attention to meet Modric’s sublime cross from the edge of the box. It may have been a career-defining moment, but it only inspired him to try harder and Rakitic really took off as a player after that.

He was made the captain at Sevilla, his third professional club after Basel and Schalke, and developed into one of the hottest playmakers in Europe. He is as versatile as his linguistic skills (Rakitic speaks five different languages), as he’s capable of playing just about anywhere in midfield: the Todocampista, the Spanish newspaper Marca dubbed him.

After a fantastic season with Sevilla, this will also be the summer of big decisions for the 26-year-old. Transfer rumours have linked him with several of Europe’s stellar names – with the Champions League finalists Real and Atlético Madrid among those repeatedly mentioned as possible suitors, as well as Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool.

Staying at Sevilla, where he has married a local girl and become a father, is also an option, but a few months ago his father Luka told the Croatian press that his son would “make the record transfer in Croatian football history”. That would mean topping Luka Modric’s £30m deal from Spurs to Real Madrid – if they perform well together for Croatia at the World Cup, they could even end up reunited at the Bernabéu. But, whatever happens this summer, one club can be quite certain to have Rakitic on their books next season – NK Pajde of Moehlin.

Aleksandar Holiga writes for Croatian website T-portal

Follow him here on Twitter

Click here for a tactical analysis of Croatia

Click here to read the secrets of the Croatia players