One of Croatia’s most prolific and legendary midfielders, Ivan Rakitić, who was instrumental in the Vatreni’s 2018 World Cup run will play in Croatia at the club level for the first time in his career. After around a month of speculation Rakitić has officially joined Hajduk Split and will reunite with former Vatreni teammate, Ivan Perišić. Dnevnik reports that Rakitić has joined the club on a two-year contract and on a speculated fee of 600k euros a year. While for the standards of the HNL this contract is massive, the estimated fee that Rakitić gave up in the Saudi League at Al-Shabab was estimated to be around 15 million euros, meaning that despite the lucrative deal Hajduk gave him, Rakitić is still taking a large cut in pay to join Hajduk. Rakitić’s desire to leave Saudi Arabia and to come to something that felt closer to home was a perfect culmination for Hajduk to sign him. Rakitić and his family have been seen at Hajduk games in years passed and are known supporters of the club, likely another reason why the move took place.
With the signing of Rakitić being confirmed, and the start of the HNL less then two weeks away, it seems that Nikola Kalinić is likely done putting together his HNL ‘super team’ to bring home the title back to Split for the first time since 2005. After nearly bringing the trophy back to Split last season, Kalinić, the former Hajduk striker turned club director is determined to finish what was started in last seasons campaign. Hajduk look to build upon a younger squad that includes talents like, Rokas Pukštas and Niko Sigur. Hajduk also thanks to the signing of Perišić last season and Rakitić this season will join an already experienced team that was led by Livaja. With expectations and talent building around Hajduk this season, will the squad that Kalinić has created be enough to see Hajduk over the hump this season is the big question on everyone’s mind.
Rumors are now Luka sucic is going to real sociedad!
This would be a pretty nice move!
If anyone hasn’t seen the vekic match, do your self a favor and watch the 3rd set! Absolute rollercoaster
Good.
Didn’t know Sociedad spent big money on player transfers…but I think Luka Sucic being a free agent soon helped them out a bit in terms of price (plus that knee injury last year probably took the shine off him as well).
If he can stay healthy, 15 million Euro is a BARGAIN for him.
Real Sociedad is the perfect kind of team for him. He may be lined up as the replacement for Mikel Merino, since it looks like Merino will be leaving. Sociedad plays to win every game and always puts together a well-rounded team based around midfield possession. It would be great for him.
Does anyone here have any thoughts or comments on our water polo team and its lose to Italy . Will Ante kvartuc or anyone on his team write a piece on the water polo team ?
Watched us beat Montenegro and also watched our loss to Italy.
We were better than Italy in the first two quarters and should have been leading by a few goals instead it was 6 – 6 at HT. We missed a penalty and on two separate occasions Italians had two players excluded at the same time i.e. we were playing 6 against 4 and on both occasions we did not score. That is where we lost the match. We were bad in third quarter and Italy went 4 goals up and there was no coming back.
We play Romania tonight and should win that to cement our spot in the Quater Finals. After tonight we still have to play Greece and USA in the group stage, and they won’t be easy matches.
I think we are in with a good chance of getting a medal. Spain and Italy will be tough to beat. Serbia is not playing well, and I have not seen Hungary play so far.
Thank for you the feed back. Let’s hope for the best
There is no shame in losing to Italy.
Croatia, Spain, Italy are the three strongest teams in the World right now (with Hungary being maybe half a step behind).
We beat Italy in the 2024 Water polo World Championships final (with Spain finishing third), and we lost in the Euro Championships to Spain in the final (with Italy and Hungary finishing third and fourth).
In my opinion, those are the four teams that will be competing for medals…and very little separates either of these teams.
So we got a gold in Judo, like i was saying, fighting and shooting, lol
War, sports and drinking. Things Croats generally excel at
F around and find out.
That’s what we’re good at.
Sinkovic brothers looked good in winning their SF heat in rowing. Final is on Friday 1130 hrs Cro time. Barbara Matic is in the SF of 70kg Judo and has looked impressive so far in dispatching three opponents and is one of the favorites for the gold medal according to the TV commentators. The SF starts today at 1600 hrs Cro time with the final to follow.
Vekić won today too. She’s in the semifinals for tennis.
She is facing off against Anna Karolína Schmiedlová (who pulled off an upset herself).
Vekić has a real shot at a medal here.
The match lasted almost 3 hours and Vekic served for it twice in the third set at 5 – 4 and 6 – 5 only to be broken. In the tie break she was down 4 – 1 and I thought that was it but she came back to win it. This has to go down as one of her greatest wins.
Watched Barbara Matic win our first medal in Judo at the Olympics and it is Gold. She is now European, World and Olympic champion which is a tremendous achievement.
Looks like Rebic might be heading back to Italy and Verona after getting the boot from Besiktas. Amazing how his career has gone backwards since being dropped from the national team for silly remark on social media and then his stubbornness in not willing to apologise.
I saw a video of Dinamo youth(16-18 years??) play galatasaray
Very scrappy but some good football it looked like
There was one kid for Dinamo he wears number 18 full of piss and vinegar
Anyone know him by any chance?
Anyways looked like an intense game. Lots of attitude.
Future is safe with young bucks with Croatian hearts
Was it Dinamo’s U19 squad?
According to Transfermarkt…#18 is Borna Orlic…but he’s a CB. He’s 17 and actually from Split. Not sure if he’s the guy you saw.
Maybe
But for sure this kid had swagger and fight
It’s just a quick video but he looked like he could possibly be something in the future
No Gauff! Vekic wins.
Pretty big win.
She’s in mixed doubles with Pavic, and now in the R32 in women’s singles.
Would be nice to see her medal after her heartbreaking loss at the Wimbledon semis.
Vekic is in the quarterfinals in singles after beating Gauff. And she’ll have a winnable QF match against either Sakkari or Kostyuk. Win that and she has two matches to play for a medal.
Ah, I though it was a bigger bracket.
Good news. Two wins away from a medal in one of the few prestigious sports at the Olympics.
I’m glad we have a medal, but not too sure about air rifle shooting ha ha.
Vekic has withdrawn from mixed doubles with Mate Pavic. You cannot blame her after beating Coco Gauff played in very hot conditions. When the match started the stadium was almost full, however at the end of the first set half the spectators left because of the heat.
Vekic is playing well at the moment and has a chance of beating Kostyuk again. They played each other at the recent French Open in the second round and Vekic won.
A friend of mine saw Luka Modric in the streets of Chicago today. How I wish it were me…
Autograph? Photo?
None, she actually didn’t know who they were. They were outside Northwestern University and she had a conversation with Modric and Vasquez, they ended up joking with her that they “play football sometimes.” She said both were very chill and down to earth.
Ha … that’s great stuff.
Sounds like a made up story. Almost as likely as Novakovic being a legitimate soccer pundit/agent/expert. Anyone know where Maher plays now?
It’s not made up, Lucas Vasquez and Modric were walking around Chicago yesterday and taking photos with fans.
Are you fellas familiar with the term ‘jocksniffing’? Look at the CSR archives and educate yourselves….
Yes, sir!
Only counts if you wear another man’s name on your back and you are over 12 or something….
At this point Modric gotta be aiming for World Cup 2026
If he was gonna retire from National Team he would have already done it by now ..?
Thoughts
He’s staying on for sure.
No article on Vida retirement from National team? …we all knew this was coming and maybe a bit overdue but I think it’s worth a look at his contributions over the years..
Croatia Week had a very brief look at some medal prospects:
https://www.croatiaweek.com/croatias-top-medal-contenders-at-olympic-games-in-paris/
Got a bronze today.
Yes, in air rifle shooting, was in second spot but stuffed up with his last shot and came third. Still a good effort.
Yes, in air rifle shooting, was in second spot but stuffed up with his last shot and came third. Still a good effort.
Yea we had two guys in Final round, finishing 3rd and 6th.
Those two losers couldn’t score a gold and silver for us?!?
Take their passports away and they can stay in France with the rest of the migrants.
Never surprised when we medal in shooting and/or fighting lol
Looking at overnight results in the UEFA club comps, all three of our clubs should make it to the 3rd round of qualifiers. I was a bit disappointed with Rijeka drawing away 0 – 0 with Corvinul a 2nd division team from Romania. They created very few chances in the match the best one fell to Ivanovic in the 73 rd minute which he blasted wide of the far post. Marco Pasalic was very poor.
Hopefully Rijeka will win at home? next opponents most likely Elfsborg from Sweden.
Hajduk did not impress me with their home 2 – 0 win over Faroe side HB Torshavn but in reality, they should not have any problems progressing to the next round against Ruzomberok of Slovakia who lost at home to Trabzonspor and in all probability as losers will meet Hajduk. The most notable thing about this match is that Torcida did not let off any flares.
Osijek started badly conceding early but then went to thump Estonian Levadia by 5 – 1. Their next opponents look like being Zire from Azerbaijan. Ramon Miarez scored a hatrick. The Argentine has spent 4 years with Osijek and come next year i.e. August 2025 he qualifies to represent Croatia.
Is there a clear cut better player between baturina and sucic or do we think they’re about the same skill wise?
Different kinds of players.
Sučić is more of a prototypical Croatian central midfielder.
Cerebral creative player with great passing.
Baturina likes to advance the ball himself. Makes good runs but isn’t known for threading passes to forwards like Modrić does. He spends more time in the opponent’s half than his own, and he favors the left side.
Hard to say who will be better.
Sučić is probably the safer pick since we’re used to this type of midfielder who covers both sides of the field pretty equally, passes alot, and isn’t known for making individual runs into the opposing third.
But if Baturina goes all prime Hazard for us, then all bets are off.
Sučić past suggest that he might not be able to stay healthy so by default it might have to be Baturina.
Hard for me not to worry about his long-term fitness. Sucic didn’t play in the Austrian Cup yesterday, nor has he played in any of his team’s pre-season friendlies. Transfermarkt listed him as having a ‘Fitness’ injury since Jul 24. Hopefully he’s actually all right and his absence can be attributed more to an impending departure from RBS…
I have a feeling it is more to do with a transfer that is upcoming and RB not wanting him to get hurt before the transfer goes through
Maminjo’s comment re our Olympic chances never came out of moderation in the other thread?
It has now.
Rakitić and Perišić could bring up the HNL coefficient in UEFA if they take this season seriously and help the team advance in Conference League. This is not just good for Hajduk’s chances of winning the league. It’s good for Croatian football overall. Dinamo also has a strong team this year, so it could be a very good year for the HNL overall.
Another day another list, yeah, but here is ESPN’s top 25 of the 21st century:
https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/40490059/ranking-top-25-men-soccer-players-21st-century
From “Biggest Bust” to #5 all-time ranking, pretty amazing and unbelievable,
Thanks for that ????
Any new rumors on sucic –
Nottingham forest fans seem to think he’s in play for them as they have reached out to potentially acquire him for this season and beyond…
Lol we all live off peanuts or and for sure our ancestors did and concerned about a multi millionaires millions
Good for raketa. It’s good for the HNL
Both him and Perisic can offer more to the league and obviously hajduk
Why the heck would you want to be in Saudi when you can play where you are truly treated like royalty especially when you have more money then you know what to do with
100%
are you guys gonna take my comment out of moderation?
Rakitic has made between 10 to 13 million Euro’s per season for 8 or 9 years in a row. thats well over 100 million euro’s when you add in bonuses…not sure how any of you are concerned why he is leaving a Muslim country to play in Croatia…its a no brainer. he doesn’t need the money and what will 15 million Euro do more for his family than he already has?
with regards to Rakitic playing at Hajduk…this is incredible and I’m really happy for the guy. I just hope Hajduk get their crap together.
like some of you here, I watch most HNL games and I do enjoy the league. even watching Istra is interesting cause they can beat anyone on any given day. Sibenik is back and they’re fun to watch also. this league is far more interesting than MLS…it takes a little time to get used to the crappy stadiums and low attendance but other than that, the games are fairly good. you’ll get a chance to see several of our youth kids.
its nice to see some decent players going back to the HNL although I really don’t want to see our kids lose their spot to a old man thats going back to retire. regardless of what some of you think, this league is fun to watch and every week is a new drama.
I like that Raketa came back.
I think more Croatian teams need to bring back useful vets like Perišić, Raketa, Broz and Modrić.
We shouldn’t waste spots on B talent foreign players.
The focus should be on strictly youth players playing with former NT veterans as every team’s composition.
It was a shame that Mandžo spent his last couple seasons in the Middle East and on the bench at Milan.
Guys like Modrić, Broz, and Krama should be pursued by Dinamo.
Even Vida would be better off than that bum Theophile who they pay a ton of money to do nothing.
True. Our vets coming home at the end of their careers is not at bad thing. I always hated to see these journeyman bums taking the place of our homegrown talent. Every team needs to fill in the gaps when they can’t find the specific local player suited for their needs, but having a veteran Croatian hero come home instead would be great for the league. I don’t know much about HNL attendance, but having players like Rakitic and Perisic coming to play against teams in smaller markets can only boost local support.
yes, but Hajduk already sells out almost every road game because of their own fans. the gap between their attendance figures on the road and every other club on the road is big.
How is this theopile guy still there? Dinamo has done a lot of genius moves. Get rid of him
Play a Croatian kid
I agree with everything you said here but I’ll defend Theophile being at Dinamo. he came in as a free player when Dinamo had terrible problems in defense. Peric had the worst season I’ve ever seen from a HNL defender and Bosko Sutalo wasn’t far behind so they had to find someone quickly and Theophile did well in the last part of the season.
Vida was busy scoring for AEK against Dinamo…he’s not welcome anymore 😉
He’s one of the highest paid players at Dinamo.
Even if he was free, the amount of money they sunk into him these past several years was a waste. They pay him 900,000 Euros per season and he’s been there six years.
He’s said in the past that he doesn’t like living in Zagreb, yet he won’t leave (obviously because he can’t get a contract outside Dinamo for anywhere close to that amount).
They couldn’t negotiate a deal with Marin Soticek (a possible future NT player for us at RW) who now left for Basel, but they gladly throw cash at Théophile-Catherine?
As a comparison, Martin Erlić makes less than half that amount for Sassuolo.
Best move is to look for Croats.
They could have tried to bring Vida back at a discount, and sign Marin Soticek at right wing.
Now, they’re going to continue to pay Théophile-Catherine that high salary…and try to sign some random South American B caliber player to fill the wing spot.
odgovor je van jednostavan. pogledaj tko je agent i koliko je zaradio na Théophile.
FC3 Sports agency from Argentina?
I don’t know all the details surrounding Marin Soticek’s deal but it was reported that Dinamo offered a salary of $10k Euro’s per month until he play’s 10 games and it goes to $15k per month and then up to $20k per month after 20 games (something along these lines) along with bonuses. This was reported but who really knows the truth.
with that said Dinamo bought Hohxa, Stojkovic, Pjaca…they still own Spikic and Mahreli and I’m not sure what the status is with Kacavenda. all these players play on the outside or can play there.
Soticek’s dad got insulted by Dinamo’s proposal and took his son to Basel…the jury is out and we will see how he ends up. at this point in his career Soticek decided to play with a newly promoted team in Switzerland over Dinamo…thats what this boils down to.
Bad conference league draw for Hajduk, if they get past the Faroe Islands team ? they will most likely play against Trabzonspor and Orsic in the next round. Even with Rakitic and Perisic they will be the underdogs in the matchup against the Turks. From memory Hajduk eliminated Trabzonspor in mid 1970’s from the European Cup but in those days, Hajduk had a team that could match it with anyone in Europe.
Oh they’re in Conference League? (barf)
We only have one Europa slot?
Actually it’s a pretty good draw – Hajduk will play the loser of that tie, so they should be playing against the Slovakian team. If Trabzon lost, would be a brutal tie given Hajduk were seeded – but they shuold avoid them.
Robert you are mistaken, Hajduk will play the winner of the tie and most likely it will be Trabzonspor ?
Apologies Robert you might be correct ? Cro media are saying that Hajduk will play the loser of the tie ? this is strange and I’m not sure if UEFA has changed the rules ?
I had a look on the UEFA site, and I think that Cro media have it wrong and I think that Hajduk will play the winner and not the loser of the tie between Trabzonspor and Slovakian club.
Not sure what the Cro media have – but you can take a peek here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024%E2%80%9325_UEFA_Europa_League_qualifying_phase_and_play-off_round#Q2_2.1
We play the loser of the Trabzon tie. Trabzon are in Europa League qualifying – so it can only make sense we play the loser!
Thanks Robert.
ajme. kad ne razumiješ hrvatski
Yep it’s just the Polish league and opponent is a newly promoted side, but Ante Crnac has already opened his account in Rakow’s opening match of the season (skillfully poking the ball home) and added an assist late in the game by nutmegging a defender.
youtube.com/watch?v=qYO-zjtJf-c
***
@Maminjo
[“It’s a good sign that Bayern refuses to include an ‘option to buy’ on Zvonarek’s loan agreement. It’s also a good marker that Spurs spent an obscene amount of money for Vuskovic too. Eintracht don’t want to loan out Matanovic anymore, and recently extended his contract too.
I will be following Sturm Graz, Westerlo and Eintracht just because of these three (somebody has to do it if Dalic won’t).”]
Got a feeling we’ll hear more and more from the youngsters going forward… Dalic and his team have got to be more diligent in following them.
@Maminjo
[The next two years could be good or bad, but it will largely be on Dalic and whether or not he can stop being a strict “veteran’s coach” and actually play the players who are performing, regardless of age.]
Yes agreed, this WC cycle can still be good. I think Dalic needs to have a conversation with the veterans and let them understand they won’t have an automatic place in the first team going forward.
He needs to fire his financial advisor.
I just don’t understand this story. Something doesn’t add up. Rakitic ain’t that rich that he can leave 15mm x 2 on the table. After guys have played for top level teams like Barcelona, do they really want to go to the hnl? The guy was traveling on team pjs, staying at 5 star hotels, team chefs, everything taken care of…. Now he’s riding the bus for a game in front of 1500 people in varazdin?!
Once again, rakitic had never lived in Croatia and very controlled by his wife. How can this all be?
I totally agree, it doesn’t add up. Maybe his family hated it in Saudi so much that he had to leave for them? From what we have all seen he is extremely doting to his wife. Leaving 15+M on the table doesn’t make any sense but it does make things far more interesting for HBS
Saudi Arabia is pretty sterile and fabricated. I can’t imaging a Croat and a Spaniard enjoying their time there at all.
All businesses closed during prayer times, not much of a night life, can’t really drink anything other than water or juice, you have to wear a shawl over your head, not really appropriate to leave the house without a man by your side, etc.
As expats from Europe, they probably live in a gated compound with all kinds of privileges that the locals do not have…but that’s essentially like being in a 5-star prison. I’m sure both Raketa and his wife were bored out of their f’ing minds.
Benzema is a devout muslim with Muslim Brotherhood links, and even he has been wanting to leave Saudi, ha ha.
Raketa’s wife has been to Croatia many times. I’m sure she loves it and is perfectly fine with living in Split for the next year or two.
Dalmacija is essentially Spain but with cleaner swimming water and better food. I’m sure they have a bunch of friends and family there that she and the kids can hang out with (unlike Saudi).
Raketa not being able to take a 20-minute first class flight to Zagreb a few times a year is not going to be a sticking point. I’m sure he’s perfectly fine taking his Rolls Royce or BMW to the games.
If it’s true that he left 15 million on the table, then he should get a lot of respect for that. Not easy to turn all that down…but I’m sure that the salary is exaggerated. I can’t believe it’s that high.
Saudi Arabia is pretty sterile and fabricated. I can’t imaging a Croat and a Spaniard enjoying their time there at all.
All businesses closed during prayer times, not much of a night life, can’t really drink anything other than water or juice, you have to wear a shawl over your head, not really appropriate to leave the house without a man by your side, etc.
As expats from Europe, they probably live in a gated compound with all kinds of privileges that the locals do not have…but that’s essentially like being in a 5-star prison. I’m sure both Raketa and his wife were bored out of their minds.
Benzema is a devout muslim with Muslim Brotherhood links, and even he has been wanting to leave Saudi, ha ha.
Raketa’s wife has been to Croatia many times. I’m sure she loves it and is perfectly fine with living in Split for the next year or two.
Dalmacija is essentially Spain but with cleaner swimming water and better food. I’m sure they have a bunch of friends and family there that she and the kids can hang out with (unlike Saudi).
Raketa not being able to take a 20-minute first class flight to Zagreb a few times a year is not going to be a sticking point. I’m sure he’s perfectly fine taking his Rolls Royce or BMW to the games.
If it’s true that he left 15 million on the table, then he should get a lot of respect for that. Not easy to turn all that down…but I’m sure that the salary is exaggerated. I can’t believe it’s that high.
Amazing, to walk away from so much money. Hajduk becoming retirement a home for ex. National Team stars. Doesn’t bode well for our future development.
Now that he is living and playing in Croatia, does that open the door for a National team return?
Sorry if this has been posted already. After our exit from EURO, Stanisic went back to Bayern to sign a contract extension until 2029.
fcbayern.com/en/news/2024/06/back-home-josip-stani%C5%A1i%C4%87-extends-bayern-contract-until-2029
That guy has to be fcked in the head I swear
Yeah I know what you mean. And there’s tough competition with the many CBs and RBs at Bayern… oh well, let’s wish Josip all the best.
I don’t get it at all.
I think this is standard operating procedure for a team that is looking to sell. By signing him for a long term contract, it will deter teams from waiting until his contract expires and picking him up for free.
If nothing else, Hajduk will be a super entertaining team to watch this year
Hopefully all of Dinamo, Hajduk and Rijeka do well.
Gotta see all three of them in Euro competitions.
I really don’t care about this guy. He left the national team too early.
@ stuG yes I agree . Weird guy too . He asked his wife out 200 times before she yes. Who does that .
None of those relationship stories are real.
If she didn’t marry Raketa she would’ve married another footballer. She’s a jersey chaser.
Years ago Barca was blaming him for some down spell. There were rumors that Barca wasn’t happy with him and in a panic he quit the NT to focus on his club. I think his wife got upset that he might be loaned out to another club and she wasn’t happy. He loves living in Spain and is a Simp to his wife. He ended up leaving anyway. Another thing why was Dalic talking to him before the Eurocup? I speculated that Dalic was worried about the trident. He knew guys weren’t in form and he reached out to him as a backup plan. Why it didn’t workout who knows. Rakitić comes across as to Emo. Maybe it was the rock throwing incident after losing to Mexico and his wife freaked out about it?
Regardless of this…
The backstory of how they met is all still fake.
She (like many women) chase footballers and want to marry them.
It doesn’t make a good story, so they’re obviously going to just tell everyone that he was pursuing her non-stop while she kept turning him down because she doesn’t date footballers.
She is a waitress who worked at the club hotel, and they literally started talking the day he signed with Sevilla. She jumped on him first before any other girl could and Raketa is just one of those guys who just goes with the flow.
Her entire family are passionate Sevilla fans. I’m sure that was ingrained in her as a youth and her dream was to always score a Sevilla player as a husband.
Tough to say if he left too early. Look at Brozo. Now everyone is saying he should have left earlier.