Close to reaching an aggreement with Sevilla - Barca tighten their grip on Rakitic

Ivan Rakitic has one and half feet in Barcelona. Persistent rumours coming out of Seville in the last few days have led to a speeding up of talks with a view to reaching a swift conclusion with the Croatian central midfielder and his current club Sevilla.

A firm commitment is in place and it is now just a question of beating out the finer details between Barça, the Andalusian team and the footballer himself. Conversations date back a few months, but real business talk has only taken place in the last couple of weeks since the completion of Barça’s disappointing end to the season and studying future requirements set out by the new manager, Luis Enrique.

Over the course of the season, Ivan Rakitic’s name has been repeatedly mentioned in the world of possible ‘Blaugrana’ signings. What he’s achieved at Sevilla and his father, Luka Rakitic’s constant flirting with the press, during which he let it be known that they’d been talking to a whole bunch of big European clubs, including Barcelona, have increased the stature of this 26-year-old footballer, which has gained him passage to one of the big guns.

The transfer fee is likely to be over 20 million euros, although another player may well be a part of the deal, which Sevilla’s director of football, Monchi, would view favourably.