Sevilla and ex-Barcelona superstar Ivan Rakitic has shared the hilarious story of how he met his now wife, admitting he had to ask her out “20 or 30 times” before she said yes.

To make it clear : she did actually know Croatia ‘s midfield playmaker/hopeless romanticist and he was n’t fair harassing a strange. probably. But Rakitic in truth did have to put the work in to get his first date with Raquel Mauri, explaining that his miss of spanish language skills truly hindered him after he moved from Schalke to Sevilla in 2011. ad 10

“ I do n’t know how to explain it … Whenever I saw her, it was like a fail went off inside me, ” Rakitic told The Players ‘ Tribune. “ workweek after workweek, I lento started to learn some spanish words, and if I was struggling, I would use my hands a draw to try to explain what I was trying to say to her. “ She thought that was amusing. She was like, “ maine … Jane. You … Tarzan. ” “ I was drinking so much chocolate it was absurd. I probably asked her out 20 or 30 times. ” attend 10 The reason for the insane caffeine consumption is that the future life spouse of Rakitic was working in a hotel bar. So he had to keep ordering coffees to make his ( circumscribed ) small talk with her. “ She never said no, ” Rakitic qualifies. But clearly she did n’t say yes either – and proving himself to his manque love interest actually became a big factor why Rakitic succeeded in Spain. ad 10

“ One day, Raquel finally explained why she would n’t go out with me. She said, ‘You ‘re a football player. You could be moving to another country following year. Sorry, but no. ‘ “ You know, I ‘m not the biggest guy in the populace, so I thought : ‘S**t, possibly she sees me and she does n’t think I ‘m going to be identical good and Seville will sell me in the summer. ‘ “ part of my motivation when I went to education 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. ” finally Raquel Mauri agreed to go for lunch with Rakitic and the rest is history : they are now married with two children. attend 10 Rakitic besides found achiever on the pitch, american samoa well as in love. The now 32-year-old joined Barcelona in 2014 and won a host of trophies – including the Champions League and four La Liga titles – before he re-signed with Sevilla last summer. The midfielder besides played in a World Cup concluding with Croatia in 2018. Raquel Mauri, interim, has over 700,000 followers on Instagram and will be celebrating knowing Rakitic for a decade in 2021. here ‘s thanking his doggedness – and incredible ability to keep drinking coffee – for their eventual happiness. Advert

10 Featured effigy credit rating : Instagram @ Raquel_Mauri