RAKITIC: FIRST FOREIGN PLAYER TO REACH 300 GAMES FOR SEVILLA FC

After more 12 years, the 300 Club opens its doors once again. The last occasion was back in February 2011 during a Europa League match in Porto when Jesús Navas reached the milestone, on his way to amassing more appearances than any other player in Sevilla's history.

Tonight, he will be joined by current teammate Ivan Rakitic. It is often said that most Sevillian non-Spaniard you will ever meet, and tonight he becomes the only non-Spanish player to join this exclusive club. Like Navas, Rakitic's record spans across two spells. The first, which lasted three and a half years, saw him rack up 149 appearances, falling just one short of the 200-mark by the end of his comeback season in 2020/21. He rounded off this figure on his first start of the 2021/22 season at Getafe. Two years and three days later, Rakitic will pull on the club's shirt for a 300th time, adding his name to an esteemed list of club legends. In addition to the aforementioned Navas - who currently has 657 appearances, as of today - these names include Pablo Blanco (415) and Juan Arza (414). Others who have passed the 400-mark are Manolo Jiménez (413) and Marcelo Campanal II (403) and José María Busto (401). In sixth place is Rafa Paz (386), followed by Sanjosé (373), Antonio Álvarez (370) and Enrique Lora, who completes the top 10 with 334. The other players that Rakitic could look to eclipse are Enrique Montero (323), Pedro Alconero (320), Juan López Hita (305) and Francisco (303). Rakitic currently sits in 15th. 

Upon reading those names, you can quickly deduce that Navas remains Rakitic's only real competition. In the final part of last season, he overtook Frederic Kanouté's foreign-player record of 290 matches. Across different competitions, in a Sevilla shirt Rakitic has played 223 LaLiga EA Sports games, 32 in the UEFA Europa League, 24 in the Copa del Rey, 19 in the UEFA Champions League and 2 in the UEFA Supercup. Over those matches, he has amassed 49 goals, making him the second-highest scorer in the current squad, behind Youssef En-Nesyri's 55. Interestingly, he is very close to eclipsing the 310 games he played for FC Barcelona. In terms of silverware with Sevilla, Rakitic has twice won the UEFA Europa League, firstly in Turin 2014 and most recently in Budapest 2023.