Rakitic’s wife may have saved him from the fatal Barcelona terrorist attack, www.aclsports.com has learned.
In an exclusive interview with Spanish media 24sata released on Sunday, the Croatia international said heeding to an instruction from his wife Raquel saved his life and that of his family on that fateful day of August 17, 2017.
Spain’s Catalonia capital Barcelona was hit by a terrorist attack in August when an assailant in a van crushed pedestrians on La Rambla in the city centre killing 13 people and injuring 130 others.
A follow-up attack claimed the life of one person and injured six more people. The events were followed by three days of mourning across the country but felt more by FC Barcelona and their fans, who remain the dominant factors of city.
A month later, Blaugrana midfielder Ivan Rakitic recalls how he almost got caught up in the scene of terror that keeps arousing trauma in town.
In an exclusive interview with Spanish media 24sata released on Sunday, the Croatia international said heeding to an instruction from his wife Raquel saved his life and that of his family on that fateful day of August 17, 2017.
“I was very close to the place where the recent terrorist attack occurred in Barcelona,” Rakitic told 24sata.
“I went downtown with my family and we prepared to go to that place the attack happened. I wanted to go there but my wife said it was a nice day and to let the kids play in the park outside our house. Thank God I listened to her.
“We were three or four minutes away from going there. And as soon as people heard of the attack, many friends and family started to call me to check how we were.”
Tagged by the local media as 2017 Catalonia Attacks, the driver of the van 22-year-old Younes Abouyaaqoub was able to escape the scene but was killed by police outside Barcelona on 21 August.
Rakitic joined Barca in 2014 from Sevilla where he plied his trade for three seasons.
