Rakitic will continue with Barca thanks to Valverde

Spanish newspaper 'AS' has reported that Croatian midfielder Ivan Rakitic will continue with Barcelona due to demands made by manager Ernesto Valverde to the club's board of directors.

Rakitic's contract runs until June 2021, and he has declared on a number of occasions that he will continue with the Catalan club. But these words alone have not always appeared enough to ward off rumours of a possible move away from Spain. 

Many have, for example, come to believe that Rakitic will be offloaded in the summer so that the club can afford to buy defender Matthijs de Ligt from Ajax, but Barcelona will now acquire this money through other means. 

Rakitic now seems certain to stay, and he remains an integral part of Ernesto Valverde's plans, having played 97 games under the Basque manager, six more than even Lionel Messi.