Croatia striker Ivan Rakitic's love story with wife is fit for a Hollywood movie

Ivan Rakitic with wife Raquel Mauri and daughters Althea and Adara. Pic/Raquel's Instagram account

Croatia midfielder Ivan Rakitic has opened up on how he met his Spanish wife Raquel Mauri. Rakitic, 30, felt his love story is fit for Hollywood. In his article for The Players' Tribune that was published recently, the Barcelona ace revealed that he met Mauri at a coffee shop on the night before he signed for Sevilla back in 2011.

"I knew the following day I had my medicals and then the contract with the president, so I was nervous. I didn't want to sleep, so I went to the hotel bar with my brother for a coffee. The woman who is now my wife was serving. It was January 27," Rakitic wrote. "I would go to her shop every morning just to see her beautiful face. My conversations with her were restricted because of the language barrier," he added.

Raquel Mauri

Rakitic finally proposed to Mauri when he saw her drinking with her sister and not behind the bar. "I had asked her out 20 or 30 times before she finally accepted," he recalled. The rest is history! The couple tied the knot in 2013 and are parents to two daughters Althea and Adara.

Croatia, who entered the semi-finals of the FIFA World Cup this year for the first time since 1998, thanks to Rakitic's winning penalty against hosts Russia in the quarters, face France tomorrow.

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