Reports had emerged earlier this month claiming that Manchester United wanted Barcelona’ s Ivan Rakitic to partner Paul Pogba in midfield. However, it now appears that the Croatian is adamant of staying in Spain and fight for his place in the first team.
As reported in Mundo Deportivo, Rakitic has instructed his agent to turn a deaf ear to all offers for him. Nonetheless, Jose Mourinho is still expected to pursue the 28-year-old in the winter transfer window.
Barcelona manager Luis Enrique had increased competition in the midfield in the shape of new arrivals Andre Gomes and Denis Suarez. Neither of the two has managed to live up to the expectations so far and this has boosted Rakitic’s confidence of securing a first team place. Rafinha and Arda Turan are the players who could give the Croatian a tough fight for a starting place.
Barcelona, themselves, are in favour of keeping the player and Rakitic, as well, wants to stay loyal to his club. The central midfielder's current deal expires in 2019 and a move before that is unlikely.
Nonetheless, Rakitic has attracted interest from Serie A giants Juventus and Chelsea, apart from United. All the three interested parties would provide first team football for the Croatian. Nonetheless, the player is well settled in Spain with his family and does not want to uproot all of a sudden.
Also read: La Liga 2016/17: Barcelona star Ivan Rakitic rejected Real Madrid offer in the summer
The other option for Rakitic is, of course, to join his national teammate Luka Modric at Real Madrid. Although this is an audacious move, it is certainly plausible. Madrid were interested in signing the midfielder before he joined Barcelona from Sevilla in 2014. And if he was to become available, Zinedine Zidane would definitely look to put in a bid. However, the Catalonian club would have no intention of letting a popular figure like Rakitic to become the new Luis Figo.
Rakitic has started 10 La Liga matches so far in the season with Andres Iniesta being injured for a major part of the start of the season. But now that he has made a full comeback from injury, it is unlikely that Rakitic will start as many matches. He did start Barcelona's midweek friendly against Al-Ahli in Qatar on Tuesday night.
