Ivan Rakitić

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Ivan Rakitić
Personal information
Full name	Ivan Rakitić
Date of birth	March 10, 1988 (1988-03-10) (age 20)
Place of birth	Rheinfelden, Switzerland
Height	1.84 m (6 ft +1⁄2 in)
Playing position	Midfielder
Club information
Current club	FC Schalke 04
Number	10
Youth clubs
	FC Basel
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
2005–2007 2007–	FC Basel Schalke 04	34 (11) 29 0(3)
National team2
2006–2007 2007–	Switzerland U-21 Croatia	04 0(1) 08 0(1)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 17 May 2008. 2 National team caps and goals correct as of 31 May 2008. * Appearances (Goals)

Ivan Rakitić (born 10 March 1988 in Rheinfelden, Switzerland) is a Croatian footballer who plays as midfielder for FC Schalke 04 and the Croatian national football team.

[edit] Club career

[edit] FC Basel

Rakitić made his first-team debut for FC Basel on 29 September 2005 in their UEFA Cup away match at NK Široki Brijeg and went on to make his Swiss Super League debut on 15 April 2006 in Basel's away match at Neuchâtel Xamax. Although the two matches were the only ones he played in the two competitions during his first professional season with Basel, he went on to establish himself as a regular in his second season with the club in 2006 and 2007, scoring 11 goals in 33 Super League appearances as well as making nine UEFA Cup appearances. He was also named the best young player of the 2006–07 Super League season.

[edit] FC Schalke 04

On 22 June 2007, Rakitić was signed by German Bundesliga side FC Schalke 04, after convincing their head coach Mirko Slomka to be a great replacement for Brazilian midfielder Lincoln, who left the club for Galatasaray.

He made his Schalke debut on 21 July 2007 in the German League Cup fixture against Karlsruher SC and also appeared in the remaining two matches of the competition, against Nürnberg and Bayern Munich, as Schalke finished runners-up. On 5 August 2007, Rakitić scored his first competitive goal for Schalke in their 9–0 away win over Eintracht Trier in the first round of the German Cup.

In the 2007–08 Bundesliga opener between defending champions Stuttgart and Schalke on 10 August 2007, Rakitić came on as a substitute for the last 20 minutes and scored his first Bundesliga goal for Schalke after only five minutes on the pitch, eventually securing the team a 2–2 draw. On 15 September 2007, he scored the only goal for Schalke in their 1–1 away draw at Bayern Munich. Three days later, he also made his UEFA Champions League debut for Schalke in their 1–0 home defeat to Valencia.

He went on to make a total of seven appearances in the 2007-08 Champions League season, including a strong and very impressive midfield role in Schalke's home fixture against Chelsea in the group stage. In the club's second-round away match at Porto, he helped his side go through to the quarter-finals of the competition for the first time in their history by delivering a pressured but well-taken penalty kick in the shootout. However, he had to miss both quarter-final matches against Barcelona due to an ankle injury sustained in training in mid-March 2008, which kept him out of action for one month.^[1]

In his third match upon returning from the injury, he scored a goal and assisted the other two in Schalke's vital 3–0 away win at Bochum, which made sure the club finish at least third in the 2007–08 Bundesliga season. He continued his fine form in Schalke's next fixture, their final home match of the season, against Eintracht Frankfurt, assisting Mladen Krstajić for the only goal of the match. He finished his first Bundesliga season with 3 goals and 10 assists in 29 appearances.^[2]

[edit] International career

Although he has previously competed with the Swiss under-17, under-19 and under-21 national teams, Rakitić decided to take up the call by Slaven Bilić and play for the Croatian national team at senior level.^[3]

He made his debut for Croatia on 8 September 2007 in their Euro 2008 qualifier against Estonia in Zagreb and was highly praised by the fans as he was entering the game as a substitute. In Croatia's following qualifier, a 6–0 away win over Andorra on 12 September 2007, he scored his first international goal for Croatia in only his second appearance for the team. He finished the year 2007 with five senior international caps to his name, four of which were in the Euro 2008 qualifying.

In early May 2008, he was added to Croatia's provisional, and eventually final, 23-man squad for the UEFA Euro 2008 finals in Austria and Switzerland, where he will be the second-youngest player.^[4]

[edit] Personal life

Due to war his parents moved to Switzerland where he was born. His father's family is originally from Sikirevci while his mother's family are Bosnian Croats from Žepče.^[5]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Profile and stats by Weltfussball.de (German)

v • d • e Croatia squad - UEFA Euro 2008 1 Pletikosa • 2 Šimić • 3 Šimunić • 4 R. Kovač • 5 Ćorluka • 6 Vejić • 7 Rakitić • 8 Vukojević • 9 Kalinić • 10 N. Kovač • 11 Srna • 12 Galinović • 13 Pokrivac • 14 Modrić • 15 Knežević • 16 Leko • 17 Klasnić • 18 Olić • 19 Kranjčar • 20 Budan • 21 Petrić • 22 Pranjić • 23 Runje • Coach: Bilić