Ivan Rakitic (Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images)
Former Barça midfielder Ivan Rakitic spoke highly about Lamine Yamal and about his days at the club in a recent interview with Flashscore, in which he said “I would say that Lamine is an incredible player, which is why I’m proud of him as he progresses and develops”, and he’s optimistic about the future of Barça’s young star, “It’s all going in the right direction, and he has become aware that football has its downsides, such as injuries and the pressure he faces. I think he has to follow his own path”.
Rakitic, who played for Barça across six seasons, also mentioned the importance to help Lamine, “we all need to help him learn to handle the pressure. He is a truly special player”, before moving on to his playing days, when he shared the pitch with the lethal MSN (Messi – Suárez – Neymar), “it was brilliant to play with them; it was an incredible time. The whole world got something special; you could see it was something unique. I think it’s the best thing that could have happened to football”. For the Croatian, “it was a pleasure not only to play with them but also to train with them.”
Ivan Rakitic won the last Champions League Bará has lifted to this day, back in 2015. The midfielder opened the score in the 4th minute of the final against Juventus. Luis Enrique coached that brilliant team. About the current PSG manager, Rakitic said “to tell you about Luis Enrique I’d need hours and hours,” as he continued, “I could even spend a whole day talking about Enrique. I enjoyed working with him for three years.
“I think he’s truly a special man and coach, he’s very meticulous and thorough, which is why he achieves such results. And I’m not at all surprised that he’s achieving such results with PSG, not in the slightest”, and he expects more success for the former Barça coach and player, “I think there’s still a lot more to come from him because I know he’s positively mad about football, I know the players follow him, it’s always been that way.”
