It has been quite a year for one Croatian footballer…
In little more than a year, Ivan Rakitić has won five major trophies for two different clubs. Fifteen months after he won the Europa League with Sevilla, Rakitić, who now plays for Barcelona, defeated his former club in the UEFA Super Cup match, reports Index.hr on August 12, 2015.
Barcelona won the European Super Cup with a 5-4 victory against Sevilla. The Spanish duel for the “unification of European titles” was played in Tbilisi, at the Boris Paichadze Stadium. In an incredibly exciting game, full of twists and turns, great action, many shots on goal (41!), beautiful goals, and big mistakes in defence, Barcelona won after extra time. Goals were scored by Messi (2), Rafinha, Suarez and Pedro for Barcelona, and Banega, Reyes, Gameiro and Konopljanka for Sevilla.
This was Rakitić’s third UEFA trophy in a year, after he won the Champions League with Barcelona in June. In his first season in the “Blaugrana”, he also won the Spanish League and the Copa del Rey, and he will play in the Spanish Super Cup.
Also, in the last year he was twice selected to the best team of the Primera, last season he was a member of the team of the season in Europa League, and he is in the top 11 of the Champions League.
“Come on! Another one! We have suffered together! Great game, congratulations to Sevilla. We will continue and win another trophy. This is for my little princesses. Daddy loves you”, wrote Rakitić after the game on his Instagram account.
Rakitić is the seventh Croatian player to win the European Super Cup. Before him, it has been won by Zvonimir Boban (Milan, 1994), Igor Bišćan (Liverpool, 2001), Dario Šimić (Milan, 2003), Ivica Križanac (Zenit, 2008), Darijo Srna (Shakhtar, 2009), Mario Mandžukić (Bayern Munich, 2013), and Luka Modrić (Real Madrid, 2014).
Barcelona has won its first of the six trophies that it will be competing for this season. On Friday, they will play the first match of the Spanish Super Cup against Athletic. The second leg is on Monday, so Barcelona could even before the start of the season in La Liga and the Champions League already win two trophies.
