Rakitić footballer of the year: "I want to remain on top"

An extremely successful year for Barcelona and Croatia has secured 27-year-old Ivan Rakitić the award for the best Croatian footballer in 2015, according to Croatia supporters' votes.

Foto: Drago Sopta/HNS

Rakitić won 48% of the votes at Croatian Football Federation website, ahead of Ivan Perišić (32%) and Luka Modrić (20%). Rakitić also won the majority at HNS official Twitter account (47%), ahead of Luka Modrić (40%) and Ivan Perišić (13%).

"A big thank you to everyone who voted. This year has been memorable on many levels, first and foremost my wife's pregnancy. Furthermore, there are all the Barcelona's title, with the goal against Juventus in the Champions League final really a special feeling", said Rakitić for hns-cff.hr.

Foto: Mario Ćužić

"This success is just another incentive to keep working on myself, to give my best as always, since it is very difficult to keep all the trophies, and that is my intention, to remain on top. My great desire is to achieve a good result with Croatia. We have a quality young team hungry for success, and we will do all we can to make Croatians happy and proud", he added.

With Barcelona, Rakitić won the treble of Primera, Copa del Rey and Champions League, only to add European Supercup and Club World Championship in the new season, all the while helping Croatia reach EURO 2016 through qualifying round.

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