Ivan Rakitic on Embracing Pressure at Barcelona
Ivan Rakitic has never been one for the spotlight, yet he understands better than most what it means to live inside it at Barcelona on a Champions League night. For him, the pressure is not something to escape. It is something to embrace.
The former Barça midfielder, a central figure in the club’s last great European triumph in 2015, believes those occasions demand a different kind of attention from the players who wear the shirt now.
“We know which matches are special, and you prepare every little detail with a bit more care,” he said, as quoted by Barca Universal.
Those details, he insists, cannot come at the cost of joy.
Rakitic’s message cuts straight to the heart of what it means to be a Barcelona footballer in this era: feel the weight, but do not let it crush you. “Never forget to enjoy yourself and be happy, because there’s a lot of pressure, but there are millions of people who would love to be in your shoes.”
At the centre of that tension between expectation and expression stands Lamine Yamal, the teenager carrying a club’s hopes with the ball at his feet and history at his back. Rakitic knows what the youngster represents, and he does not want to see that spark dulled.
“With Lamine, what we need to do is let him enjoy himself, dance, do his thing,” he said.
The words could easily describe the classic Barça winger: daring, instinctive, unafraid to take on the game by the scruff of the neck. But Rakitic is not calling for indulgence alone. There is a demand in his admiration.
“I’d also like to see him take responsibility.”
That is the crux. Talent is one thing. Ownership of the moment is another. Rakitic has watched enough young players to know when someone is wired differently, and he places Lamine in that category.
“Normally, you don’t have to tell young players so much, but Lamine has reached a point where he demands a lot from himself and wants more, even though he’s very young.”
These are not the words of someone offering gentle encouragement from a distance. They sound more like a challenge from one generation to the next. The message is clear: the biggest nights are not for hiding. They are for growing.
“And these are the matches where he can grow a great deal, and Barca needs him more than ever.”
It is a stark reminder of the reality at Barcelona. There is no soft landing. If you are good enough to be in the team, you are old enough to carry part of the burden. Lamine, still a teenager, already finds himself treated as a pillar rather than a prospect.
Rakitic, who shared dressing rooms with Lionel Messi, Neymar, Luis Suárez and Andrés Iniesta, recognises something different in the winger’s aura. Not the same level, not yet, but the same fearlessness.
“Ever since he made his debut, he’s had that ‘flow’; I think that’s the word for it,” he admitted, almost amused at the modern term. “I’m not that modern, I’m more old-school, but that’s football these days.”
The contrast is telling: the old-school midfielder talking about a new-school star, yet both bound by the same basic truth. Style is fine. Flair is welcome. Only one thing really counts.
“These things are part of the game, but what matters is what happens on the pitch afterwards, and he’s delivering there – we can’t ask for much more.”
In a club constantly searching for its next standard-bearer, that last line hangs in the air. If Lamine keeps delivering when the lights burn brightest, Barcelona will not need to ask for more. They will simply build around him.
