Rakitic laughs off Barcelona exit talk despite approaching final 12 months of contract

Ivan Rakitic has laughed off the latest round of rumours regarding his Barcelona future, with the Croatian adamant that he is not looking for a move.

Transfer talk is nothing new for the 32-year-old midfielder, especially as he is now approaching the final 12 months of his current contract.

He has paid little attention to the speculation in the past, amid talk of interest from the likes of Sevilla and Inter, and will not be altering that stance any time soon. Having been at Camp Nou since 2014, with 299 appearances for the Blaugrana, Rakitic insists he is happy in his current surroundings.

He told Sky Deutschland of the exit rumours: “I’ve got used to it a bit. I’ve been here six years now – so I’ve had six years of this sort of thing.

“I have to try to understand it, to remember that football is not just a sport. There is a bit more to it. We know that, we have to try to understand it – you have a laugh about it sometimes.

“The main thing is that I feel good and I am getting good feedback from the manager and the club.

“I’ve still got a contract, when I sign a contract I always intend to fulfil it, and if that cannot happen for any reason, then we’ll sit down together and talk about it, but for the moment, I am very happy here and I am thinking about other stuff.”

For now, Rakitic is focused on getting back into action with Barca, with the Liga giants having welcomed senior stars back to their training base on Wednesday amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Rakitic  said of the testing circumstances of recent months: “Today’s the first day I’ve been out in 60 days. I’ve only been 30-40 metres from the house until now.

“We’ve been allowed for, I think, about a week, to go out walking with children for one hour per day, and that was it. So today was the first time I’ve been properly out of the house.

“And it was a funny feeling, a bit uncomfortable, driving with gloves on, with a mask on, pretty weird, the situation is a new one for us, and you do have, well maybe not fear, but you certainly have respect for the situation.

“In football you have to be ready for anything but as I’ve said I don’t want to look too far ahead. I want to enjoy the moment and get ready to play whenever we are able to, or allowed to.

“We are still in the Champions League – we have the second leg of the last-16 tie against Napoli. In La Liga we are two points ahead of Real Madrid, and we have fair few games still to play.

“We want to try to enjoy that, hopefully enjoy that, and after that we’ll see.”