Ivan Rakitic 'very happy' at Barcelona amid Manchester United links

Ivan Rakitic's agent has effectively rebuffed recent speculation concerning a possible move to Manchester United by insisting that his client remains perfectly content to stay at Barcelona.

Mundo Deportivo recently established Jose Mourinho's interest in signing Rakitic and subsequently revealed that Barcelona would make negotiations regarding an extension to the Croatian international's contract a matter of priority once they have successfully formalised new deals for influential attacking duo Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez. Neymar, Javier Mascherano and Sergio Busquets have all committed their futures to the club over recent months.

"Ivan is very happy at FC Barcelona, where he has been tremendously successful and has a contract with the club until 2019," representative Arturo Canales told the Daily Mail.

He did not completely close the door on the prospect of the itinerant Rakitic one day plying his trade in the Premier League, however, adding: "Ivan loves football and is only 28-years-old. Having played in Switzerland, Germany and Spain, who knows if one day he'll be ready to have an experience in England, but for now he's an FC Barcelona player."

After beginning his career with FC Basel and Schalke, Rakitic spent three years at Sevilla before signing a five-year contract with Barcelona in June 2014. The Croat has since won back-to-back La Liga and Copa del Rey titles as well as playing a key role for Luis Enrique's side two seasons ago as they sealed an impressive treble with a Champions League final victory over Juventus. He has made 15 appearances across all competitions so far this term, scoring against both Athletic Bilbao and Atletico Madrid.

Rakitic earned his 81st international cap in a 2018 World Cup qualifier against Iceland in Zagreb on Saturday (12 November) and set up Inter Milan's Marcelo Brozovic for the first of his two goals as Croatia maintained control of Group I with a comfortable 2-0 victory over the European Championship quarter-finalists despite seeing Ivan Perisic sent off late on. Along with midfield colleague and Real Madrid counterpart Luka Modric, he was unexpectedly released back to his club ahead of a friendly encounter against Northern Ireland in Belfast on Tuesday (15 November).

Barcelona, currently two points adrift of their bitter rivals at the top of La Liga, host Malaga this weekend before travelling to Glasgow for their penultimate Champions League group stage match against Celtic. They then face Real Sociedad and a Copa del Rey round of 32 first-leg tie against Hercules ahead of the first El Clasico derby of the season against Real Madrid at the Nou Camp on 3 December.