Luka Modric, one of the world’s best midfielders, had a tough upbringing in war-torn Croatia. Raised in the remote outpost of Modrici, a rural epicentre of the war, his formative years were stained with suffering as inhumanity where local Croats were routinely murdered by Serb paramilitaries, had become standard practice. So in late 1991, after his grandfather also called Luka, was killed in cold blood, the Modric family had no other option but to flee, seeking refuge in the port city of Zadar. Sadly, it was a case of frying pan into the fire as Zadar was under constant Serb bombardment from both land and sea.
Housed in one of the largest hotels in the city, The Kolovare, young Luka simply got along by making friends and playing football, totally oblivious at the time that his destiny was taking shape. Kicking balls in the hotel corridors and car parks, he displayed such skill that he was recommended to the director of the local club, NK Zadar, Josip Baljo, who was impressed and duly enrolled the seven-year-old – even moving the family to a hotel closer to the club’s ground.
Timid off the pitch but assured on it, Modric’s ability was there for all to see, except for his diminutive stature and a lack of physicality. It was evident that he was destined to become a great, but not many believed in him because of his delicate stature, especially at a time in the Balkans when it was thought that you had to be powerful to be succeed as a footballer. For a while he contemplated quitting the game altogether but Tomislav Basic, the head of Zadar’s youth academy rebuilt the youngster’s self-belief, recruited a personal trainer to work with him, and was always there to offer encouragement and advice. Modric regarded him as his “second father” and when Basic died in February 2014, Modric would dedicate Madrid’s Champions League victory three months later to his old tutor, declaring: “Without him, I wouldn’t be where I am now.”
His self-belief restored by Basic’s wise counsel, the teenage Modric became more and more marketable. The country’s top club, Dinamo Zagreb, were increasingly keen on bringing him on board, and after impressing in a youth tournament in Italy he was reported to be on the radar of Serie A clubs Juventus, Internazionale and Parma. He also made his debut for Croatia’s under-15s around the time and international recognition was on the cards too.
Zadar did their best to keep him from the clutches of others, but only for so long, eventually allowing the 16-year-old to join Zagreb in 2001. His new team-mates included Croat-Brazilian attacker Eduardo and Vedran Corluka, who he would later join in England with Tottenham Hotspur. Zagreb opted to send him out on loan in the summer of 2003 to Zrinjski Mostar in the Bosnian league, a championship which at the time was renowned for its brutality, to toughen him. It was a tough assignment and a real test of his temperament given the on-field bullying and off-field racial insults. But he got through it to end the season as the league’s player of the year, as well as discovering an innate physical resilience. It can be said that Modric developed into a midfield all-rounder in Bosnia; bringing out the worker and the fighter in him.
Zagreb were, however, not quite ready to welcome him back just yet and so provided another hoop for him to jump through by sending him on loan at Croat top-flight side Inter Zapresic, an outfit with a track record of looking after young Dinamo loanees, for the 2004-05 season. The move proved highly beneficial for both parties. Modric established himself as the most gifted young player in the country and won his first cap for the under-21s, while Inter sensationally clinched the domestic league runners-up spot – the one and only time they have ever done so.
Zagreb thereafter signed Modric to a 10-year contract and began to play him on a regular basis. At Stadion Maksimir he was rarely anything less than magnificent with honours to prove it: three times a Croat league winner, three domestic cups, various player of the year awards and the first of his 95 senior caps in 2006. A lucrative move to the European football mainstream was only a matter of time with Arsenal and Manchester United known to be admirers while, according to Camp Nou insiders, Barcelona passed up a chance to land him in 2008. Barcelona’s loss turned out to be Tottenham’s gain as four seasons in England quite rightly ended him as one of Spurs’ all-time great midfielders before he left to join the ranks of the Galaticos.
Now in his fifth season in Spain, Modric has certainly enjoyed his time at the Bernabeu, where his scintillating play-making ability has contributed to a record four Champions League victories in five years, including three consecutively. A Croat has mounted the Ballon d’Or podium just once – Davor Suker finishing as runner-up in the 1998 poll. Following his exploits in Spain over the last few years, and over the last few days in Russia, Luka Modric may just be on his way to being the second. The 31-year-old clearly deserves respect for exemplifying the grass-to-grace maxim of persevering through failures and set-up to attain success – in utmost humility and level-headedness, in his case.