Ivan Rakitić

[Jadentheman]

It’s because of guys like BBZ gassing Rakitic up and making him seem important especially compared to newcomers

 

[BBZ8800]

Well, the Croatia part in terms of recognition if I remember correctly, BBZ I believe said that he's treated a bit differently because he never came through any Croatian football academies like many of his fellow international teammates. Rakitic grew up in Switzerland and began his football career there.

Despite being Croatian himself, it seems like he's still seen somewhat of an outsider probably for that reason.

True.
It is not that black and white.

Croatia had a war with Yugoslavia/Serbia from 1991-1995 and people here are still quite emotional and traditional regarding who is a real Croat, who has foreign roots, who grew up here, who grew up in foreign countries.

Modric is born in Croatia.
Also, Modric played in early years for Dinamo Zagreb for 4 years.
And in Croatia, Dinamo is something like Bayern or Juve. By far the biggest and a richest club in a one-horse race league.
All media, tv, papers are writing ONLY about Dinamo.
Dinamo is the only club who plays Champions league and Uefa cup.
Also, Dinamo is from a capital Zagreb (1 Million population, while the whole Croatia has only 4,1 Million population).
So, majority of football fans are fans of Dinamo.

Add to that: Dinamo's owner for years was mighty criminal Zdravko Mamic.
And Dinamo, domestic league, refs, NT team=everything is corrupted and Mamic owned everything.

So, when Dinamo had young players like Modric, Eduardo da Silva, Mandzukic, Kovacic, Halilovic, Pjaca, those players are hyped to death (papers are corrupted and work for Mamic).
Also, former NT coaches were "owned" by Mamic and they played young Dinamo's players on purpose, to raise their value (for Mamic).
= if a young player plays for NT or at a World cup, his price will jump from 2-3 Millions to 10 Millions.
A player will earn more money. Mamic will earn more money from player's sales (Dinamo's owner). And NT coaches and jurnos will get some money in their pockets.

So, Modric:
1. born in Croatia=check
2. played for Dinamo=check
3. born in a Southern part of Croatia=so basically BOTH southern fans will love him since he is born there, and Northern fans will love him since he played for Dinamo=check
4. unreal hype machine from Mamic and his media=check

Then you have Rakitic:
1. born in Switzerland, never lived in Croatia. Nobody knew about him until the age 18
2. never played for Dinamo
3. doesn't have any connections with fans from Southern or Northern Croatia
4. isn't hyped by Mamic and his papers because he never played for Dinamo.

Now, Modric is a better player, but...
He is not THAT much better and he wasn't always that good.
For me, Modric was a huge disappointment for years on all World cup and Euros, until 2018 when he finally played awesome.

For me also, I have a feeling that Modric is like a CR7 in Croatia.
Everyone loves him. Hype is insane. PR is insane.
And no matter what he will do, he will always win a title of a best player of Croatia.

For example, winners of Croatia's player of the year award:
2007: Modric=playing for Dinamo Zagreb.
2008: Modric=Dinamo and moved to Tottenham
2009: Olic=Bayern Munchen
2010: Olic=Bayern Munchen
2011: Modric=Tottenham, zero trophies. Olic still plays for Bayern and is winning titles.
2012: Mandzukic=Bayern, CL finals
2013: Mandzukic=Bayern, CL winners
2014: Modric=Real Madrid. CL winners. Rakitic has won Uefa League with Seville.
2015: Rakitic=Barcelona, due to winning a CL and a treble.
2016: Modric=Real, CL winners. Barca won La Liga.
2017: Modric=Real, a double
2018: Modric=Real, CL winners. Barca won La Liga. Both played WC final.
2019: well, there are no players who were outstanding, so probably Modric will win it again, inspite of not winning any trophy with Real and playing like shit this year.

So, in the last 12 years:
Modric: 7 titles
Mandzukic: 2 titles
Olic: 2 titles
Rakitic: 1 title

Especially if you look at Modric vs Rakitic, where Modric leads with 7:1 in titles, if we are honest, that isn't too fair.
Even in 2007 and 2008, Modric was winning titles at Dinamo Zagreb.
While there were other players playing good in big clubs, like Srna at Shakhtar, Corluka at Man City and Tottenham, Olic at HSV, Petric at Dortmund, Rakitic at Schalke, Klasnic at Werder.

But also, in overall, with Modric in Croatian gossip papers you can read: Modric has been here, Modric has been there, his wife was wearing this, they have ate this for dinner.

What Rakitic is doing is not perfectly fine, but his situation is somewhat similar to Messi vs CR7.
You know that feeling that no matter how many goals or titles will Messi win, CR7 will get Ballon D Or for 3 Months of good form from September-December.

Also, no matter how shit Modric played for years on big tournaments, he was never attacked by media and fans.

Rakitic probably wants for media to write: Modric and Rakitic are the best players in the last 10 years, we owe our success to them.
While in media, it is more like: a king Modric and 10 random players around him.

 

[Messigician]

Lovong the analysis BBZ.

 

[Horatio]

Man ain’t a diva. He’s just in denial phase. Not willing to accept he ain’t good enough anymore. Pride is stinging.

 

[Tekkers]

Would love to see him benched into January. Then he can make the decision as to whether he wants to get any games in heading into Euro 2020. You can't try to hold the club for ransom as an aging 30 year old and think you're just going to get away with it. The club has to make an example out of guys like this

 

[Messi983]

Lol.

He was prepared to go to Juve but they didn't want to pay anything for him except players swap which Barça rejected.

 

[Raketa10]

There are 3 conclusions that can be drawn from "Rakitic case":

1. He was benched by Barto and Co. and not Valverde. I am 100% sure of that.
2. We again showed that we are dumb as fuck when it comes to selling players. He had a HUGE offer last summer from PSG and we decided not to sell but this summer we wanted to push him out! In that way you can't expect to earn a big sum of money since it's obvious you are desperate to sell.
3. With this behavior towards Croatian NT he made more enemies and now people who defended him will be angry as fuck. It was a huge mistake from him regardless what his reasons were. He also needed a playing time since he played only 45 minutes in the last 3 games. This was a perfect opportunity for him to play two games in a row and to regain his form.

I don't know what's going through his head but it's clear he can't handle the 24/7 criticism from Barca fans anymore. Some of them are fair while some of them aren't but the truth is if no one wants you here you should leave, even more if you have serious offers. On the other side Barca didn't sell when they had a chance and there is no way in hell we'll get a serious amount of money for him next summer since he will be 32 years old and probably benched this entire season. This is a lose-lose situation right now for both Barca and Rakitic.

[MENTION=16942]BBZ8800[/MENTION] I agree with your observation regarding Rakitic but you have to admit one thing. Croatian people, Croatian players and Dalic respect him a lot! Such a big number of cancellations, without a proper reason were never tolerated to any Croatian player except Raki so in the end that's a clear sign he is well respected. IMHO that's much more important than any award or article. Unfortunately his behavior towards NT in the last couple of months was not fair by any means and that's why Croatian fans have every right to be upset right now.

 

[El Guaje]

Lol.

He was prepared to go to Juve but they didn't want to pay anything for him except players swap which Barça rejected.

Should have taken Mandzukic and a bit of money.

 

[malvolio]

Should have taken Mandzukic and a bit of money.

we already have a drunken donkey - luis suarez. are we trying to start a farm?

 

[El Guaje]

we already have a drunken donkey - luis suarez. are we trying to start a farm?

Mandzukic is still a pretty good player. Could be very useful as a plan b. All we do right now is give the ball to alba to cross anyway.

 

[xXKonan]

According to Cat Radio, he had an agreement with both Juve and Inter.

Inter wasn't willing to meet our requests while Juve did try to give us Can for him but we wanted Bernardeschi.

 

[Messi983]

So it's hard to blame him for not wanting to leave as I said.

He didn't want to go to PSG but that deal wouldn't go through anyway because of Dembele. And tbh I'm thankful to all our players who have rejected to be part of Neymar's deal.

Mandzukic is still a pretty good player. Could be very useful as a plan b. All we do right now is give the ball to alba to cross anyway.

Alba can only pass to Messi.

 

[BBZ8800]

He accepted a move to Juve, Inter and even Psg.

Psg collapsed due to Neymar.
Inter wanted him but didn't have money.
Juve wants everyone for free or for peanuts.

So, it is hard to tell that he didn't want to leave and that he wanted to hurt the club.

 

[Messigician]

Yeah Rakitic is blameless here. It was that rat Dembele who refused to go to PSG that ruined the Neymar move.

 

[messi2140]

Yeah Rakitic is blameless here. It was that rat Dembele who refused to go to PSG that ruined the Neymar move.