The year of 2018 will be one to remember for Ivan Rakitic and also for his Croatia teammate Luka Modric, who he believes should be winning any individual awards that aren’t claimed by Lionel Messi.
The Barcelona midfielder spoke about the individual awards that are coming up, for the past season and for the calendar year, and spoke of Modric‘s candidacy.
“If there is an individual prize that Lionel Messi can’t win, then there’s no doubt that this season it should go to Luka Modric,” he said in an interview with MARCA.
“It wouldn’t surprise me if he were to win with many more votes.
“This has been his year and I am really happy for him.
“If Messi isn’t the best, then it has to be Modric.”
Reaching the World Cup final was a massive achievement for all of the Croatian players, although Rakitic would have liked to have done better with Barcelona in the Champions League.
“Now that several months have passed you can say that we might have done things differently,” he said of the 3-0 loss away at Roma.
“People get smarter and analyse things.
“It’s good for us to learn from that and to not go through something like that again.
“Of course there were things we could have done better.”
In the summer, he considered an offer from Paris Saint-Germain, but Ernesto Valverde helped to convince him to stay.
“I’m really grateful for the coach’s words and for the conversations I had with him,” Rakitic
“The way he has behaved with me has been really good and I appreciate it all.
“I always try to give my best and I want to be involved all the time, not missing any training sessions and being able to give my all for my teammates. ”
He also spoke about plans to play a match between Barcelona and Girona in the USA.
“If they do decide to go over there then we’ll go feeling the pride of representing Barcelona,” he said.
“Also, it’d be at Miami, a stadium we know.
“If we don’t go then we avoid a long journey.
“The important thing is that the best thing for everyone is done, for the players, the clubs and the fans.
“The decisions should be made together.”
His complete interview with MARCA can be found online and in print on Friday, September 14.
Soruce: Marca