Modric Luka - Luka Modric

Contents

2018 brought me the most beautiful and most emotional moments of my career. With my teammates at Real Madrid and the Croatia national team, I made all of my childhood dreams come true. Even more than that. I won the fourth UEFA Champions League with Real, and then, right after that, Croatia won the silver medal at the FIFA World Cup in Russia. These were sensational accomplishments that culminated on a personal level with the most prestigious awards for the Best Player in Europe and the world. All of this left a lasting impression on me and it filled me with pride and happiness. And this is why I felt the need to write a book about everything that came before this magnificent year. Along the way were moments of happiness, hardship, sadness, suffering, joy; there were all kinds of moments, such as everyone has to go through. This made me who I am, as a person and as a football player. Each of us has the right to dream and to hope to make those dreams come true. Now that I have shared my story with you, I will be happy if it helps you always, even at the toughest of moments, to have faith and never give up on your goals. This is the mindset that helped me make my most beautiful dreams come true.

This book is my story, and there are many people who helped me tell it. First and foremost, I wish to thank my wife Vanja and our children. Besides bringing me joy, their support made it easier to write this book because it meant being away from them. Vanjas memories and recollections helped making this book. I wish to thank my parents, who were once again there for me, especially when it came to writing about my childhood and teenage years. I would also like to thank my loving sisters, and close friends and companions in the story of my life.

I am honoured and thankful to Sir Alex Ferguson and Zvonimir Boban for their forewords to this book. I am touched by their kind words.

Special contributions to this book came from Drago Sopta and the Croatian Football Federation, who gave their permission to use their photographs. I am thankful to them, just as I am grateful to Real Madrid, who gave their permission to use photo and video materials. I want to thank Antonio Villalba Calderon for the cover photo, as well as my dear teacher Maja Grbi, who saved my third-grade assignment and school photographs.

Special thanks go to two people who were by my side throughout the year of writing this book. Diana Matuli, my agent and publisher, and her team did a tremendous job and helped the project with their experience and knowledge.

Finally, I want to thank Robert Matteoni, who helped me put on to paper everything I considered important for my story, especially my emotions. They are the essence of every story.

Foreword
by Sir Alex Ferguson CBE

As we speak today about Luka Modri, we are speaking about a wonderfully talented player who, in my opinion, is on a level with the great midfielders of the last 20 years, such as Xavi, Iniesta and Scholes. His award as the Best Player of the FIFA World Cup in 2018 was deservedly given to him; he was by far the Player of the Tournament.

When he joined Spurs in 2008 it was a surprise to us at Manchester United, as he was under our radar although one of our scouts had flagged him up a year before. However, we had Keane, Scholes and Carrick. Once I had watched him against us, I never assessed him as too weak for the English Premier League. You cannot dismiss ability and that was the obvious talent Luka had. He developed very quickly and I made him my target in 2011, but Spurs wouldnt sell to us as we had already taken Carrick and Berbatov from them previously.

I named him as my player of the year in 2011, which was not a difficult decision. He signed for Real Madrid and the rest is history, as he matured into one of Reals all-time greats. The European match against them at Old Trafford in March, 2013, was my last attempt at winning the Holy Grail, but we were robbed by a disgraceful decision by the referee who sent off Nani at the moment when we were in complete control and winning 1-0. As soon as Nani was sent off, Mourinho sent on Modri and the game changed it was Lukas performance that killed us.

In the analysis of his career, especially looking at his background as a young boy, he is an exemplar to young players that talent outmatches brawn. When Paul Scholes joined Manchester United at 13 years of age, he was no taller than 53 and some wondered whether he was too small, myself included. But in no time, all our opinions changed because of his performances on the football field. In reality, the best way to assess players is the evidence you see on the pitch.

Luka Modri is the shining example to all young players, irrespective of height, stature and strength. My deepest regards to a man who defeated all arguments about physique because he could play!

Foreword
by Zvonimir Boban

Here is a special book about a humble genius from a small village near Zaton Obrovaki in Croatia. When I was thinking about what to write in this foreword, the books co-author and my long-time friend, Robert Matteoni, asked me to try to offer a different outlook on Luka some deeper tactical reading.

Im not sure if this is something I can deliver, but it doesnt matter, because the only thing that matters is that Luka Modri happened and that he happened to all of us.

Luka and his football. So simple yet so special, so unique and different.

The ease and sophisticated geometry, the harmony, the dynamics, the calmness this is too much to capture in one short foreword, regardless of how precise or well-written it may be.

And all the richness of Modris footballing intuitions, and his supposedly simple solutions, came out of the only source they could come from the most revered number in football, No. 10. Its a paradox that at the top level of football, Luka has never really played as a traditional No. 10, but he was born a 10, he was made a 10 and he has always been marked as a 10. No one can say that Luka is a No. 4, or a complete playmaker, or an 8. No one can say that he stopped being a 10. What can be said is that he is all of these at once. And all of this is found in one man, who has always played with an almost mystical dependability, regardless of whose shirt he has put on his clubs or his national teams. And who was everything all he had to be.

Creating where its the toughest, in those narrow ravines and rapids of the centre field, where everything happens and is felt differently thats where the game is inspired and directed. There, around the centre circle, with a constant gauging and ability to recognise what only a few can see, Modri has held on to his mantra and asked himself the most important question in football a question to which he has always had an answer: In these 90-odd minutes, in every second, whether the ball is in my possession or not, how can I be the best I can be for my team?

It seems complicated, yet for him its so simple. But on countless occasions he has had to find the answer to this question from within himself.

With self-sacrifice, with an ambition that long ago gave up on the I to focus instead, a hundred times over, on we the only way that leads to greatness Modri has dealt with all of this with ease. Surprising ease. And all those adjustments, the incessant background chatter about taking the No. 10 from him, as well as from football, he quickly turned to his advantage, into his growth. When he needed to cancel out his self to build an even better Modri, he did it quickly and convincingly, without ever doubting his path as a football player. That is his biggest victory. That is what makes him what he is today.