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#5 Ivan Rakitic
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The 2013/14 season has been Rakitic’s season of reckoning. A player who promised so much since his early days with Basel and Schalke, Rakitic has finally fulfilled his prodigious potential with Sevilla this season, playing a pivotal role in their remarkable Europe League triumph.
A player who possesses a lovely right foot, keeps the ball as if he owns it, sprays it around ever so nonchalantly, Rakitic has led by example for Sevilla after being named club captain at the start of the season.
A return of 15 goals and 13 assists makes for a mind-boggling statistic for a player who isn’t even deployed as a natural attacking midfielder. Rakitic is equally mindful of his defensive duties and if Kovac sticks to his favoured 4-2-3-1 formation, he will have an enormous responsibility alongside Luka Modric to orchestrate the midfield, create scoring opportunities and perform their defensive duties with equal élan.
Reported offers from the likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid have started surfacing and Rakitic could well turn out to be the standout player in a star-studded Croatian line-up.
