Man Utd’s Ivan Rakitic transfer blocked by his stunning wife Raquel as she does not want to leave Barcelona
MANCHESTER UNITED'S attempts to sign Ivan Rakitic were blocked by the midfielder's wife who wants to stay in Barcelona, according to reports.
With Ole Gunnar Solskjaer losing both Paul Pogba and Scott McTominay to injury, it is no wonder the club want to bring in another passing general in the middle of the park.
Bruno Fernandes' long transfer saga is finally set to come to an end with United agreeing a £55million move for the Sporting playmaker.
But report that the Red Devils held talks to discuss the possibility of bringing in Rakitic, 31, this month.
The Croatian has won ten major trophies - including the Champions League and Club World Cup - since joining Barcelona from Sevilla in 2014.
He has made 22 appearances for Barcelona this season but is yet to score and has registered just two assists.
After a spell out of the team, Rakitic's wife hit out at the treatment of her husband.
She said: "You can't treat a player any worse than that."
Raquel then added a message to Rakitic: "Don't give up the fight. You are an example of consistency, knowledge and professionalism. I love you for all of this. You are great and nobody can change that."
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Any chance of making the move to Old Trafford, however, is understood to have been quickly curtailed by wife Raquel.
The pair met in 2011 when Raquel was working as a barista in Seville.
Rakitic revealed that she had her reservations about dating a footballer because he could end up having to move to another country.
He told the Players' Tribune: "You know, I’m not the biggest guy in the world, so I thought, 'S***, maybe she sees me and she doesn’t think I’m going to be very good and Seville will sell me in the summer.'
"Part of my motivation when I went to training was to establish myself in the squad so that I would be around for a while and this girl would finally have dinner with me. It literally took me seven months."
Rakitic finally convinced her to go on a date and they married in April 2013, three months before their first daughter Althea was born, and then had a church ceremony two years later.
Adara, the couple's second daughter, was born in May 2016 and the family are clearly settled in Catalonia.
And just like David De Gea's partner Edurne Garcia, the idea of moving to Manchester was not particularly attractive.
Garcia famously said Manchester was "uglier than the back of a fridge" in 2015 before finally moving in with the goalkeeper in 2018.