Goodbye! The 37-year-old Barcelona legend officially retired, won 18 championships in 19 years, and joined the management as an assistant

July 3 news, Croatian team Hayduke head coach Gonzalo Garcia announced that 37-year-old Croatian midfielder Rakitic has retired and will join the club's management; the former Barcelona midfielder ended his 19-year career.

Born in 1988, Rakitic is already 37 years old. He is a representative figure of the golden generation of Croatia. His career began with the Swiss club Basel. In the summer of 2007, he officially landed in the five major leagues to join Schalke 04. He played for 3 and a half years and left 135 games, 16 goals and 29 assists, and won the German Cup championship. It is worth mentioning that Hao Junmin also worked with Rakitic during this period. In the winter window of 2011, Rakitic came to La Liga to join Sevilla; at Pisjuan Stadium, he made his name; thus gaining the favor of Barcelona.

Rakitic joined Barcelona in the summer of 2014. Not only did he firmly occupy the main position in his debut season, he also scored a first-time goal in the Champions League final and finally won the championship. After Xavi and Iniesta left one after another, Rakitic became an indispensable main force in Barcelona's midfield. 310 appearances, 35 goals and 42 assists, the world wave against Tottenham Hotspur, and the national derby shooting down Real Madrid are the most beautiful memories of his fans who stayed in Barcelona. In his six seasons at Barcelona, ​​he has won a total of 1 Champions League, 1 Club World Cup, 1 European Super Cup, 4 La Liga, 4 King's Cup and 2 Spanish Super Cup championships.

In the summer of 2020, Rakitic returned to Sevilla again and played here for 4 years again, and won the UEFA Cup championship again in the 22-23 season; throughout his career, Rakitic won a total of 18 championship trophies. Since then, Rakitic has also transferred to Riyadh Youth in January last year, but he has only played eight times in half a season; he returned to Croatia to join Hayduke last summer and made 39 appearances in the last season of his career.

In the national team, he and Modric were the best match in the midfield; as early as 2007, Rakitic, who was only 19 years old at the time, was shortlisted for the national team. Since then, he has played 106 times for the national team, scoring 15 goals and 16 assists. In 2018, he followed Croatia to reach the World Cup final as the main player, but unfortunately he lost to France in the final and won the runner-up; after the World Cup, Rakitic also retired from the national team. It is reported that although the contract between Rakitic and Hayduke has expired, he has also decided on the next step, which is to join the club management as an assistant.