On Monday, Croatian captain Luka Modrić won the FIFA Best Player of the Year award, beating out former Real Madrid teammate Cristiano Ronaldo and Liverpool’s Mohammed Salah. After being voted ‘Worst La Liga Signing in 2012’ by Marca, Modrić defied all odds this season, dominating – without being a goal scoring machine – in a footballing world still being graced by the presence of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
With Modrić already winning the UEFA Champions League with Real madrid, the Golden Ball at the World Cup and the UEFA Player of the Year award, he was slated as the favorite to win the FIFA Best Player as well. And he did it, marking the first time in football history that a single player has collected all four trophies in the same year.
Modrić gave a wonderful speech thanking former Croatia great and 1998 captain, Zvonimir Boban, sending him to tears during the ceremony.
Modrić made the impossible possible in 2018 and rewrote Croatian football history in the process.
Two questions always loomed in Croatian minds after 1998:
1. Would Croatia’s 3rd place finish at the 1998 World Cup ever be surpassed?
2. Would Croatia ever have a better player than Davor Šuker?
We now have both of those answers, thanks to Luka Modrić.
But I ask this to you CroatianSports.com nation:
Will there ever be a greater Croatian player than Luka Modrić?
Will a Croatian team one day lift the World Cup trophy and complete the mission the 2018 team fell just short of?
The accolades of the 1998 team, being led by Golden Boot winner Davor Šuker, seemed impossible to top. But it happened 20 years later.
Will the 2018 earth shattering records of Luka Modrić or the Croatian national team ever be broken?
The u21s are way better looking and sexier then our current mens squad.
I’d be more interested in watching u21 than senior team coming up
There was nothing “unlucky” about Dudu’s injury.
We embarrassed England and knocked them out of Euro 2008.
Not long after, some B-grade English player deliberately breaks Dudu’s leg in the most horrific tackle you’ll see as a spiteful act of vengeance.
That’s not bad luck; that’s actually GBH and the guy should’ve been thrown in jail. Bad luck is what happened to Klasnic; with Dudu, luck played no part.
@ Maminjo
A young healthy Eduardo was a world class finisher.
I must confess that I much rather see a team of domaći Hrvati, then “naturalized.”
Eduardo was special case and felt like more than a rent a Brazilian.
But give me a Vatreni full of Pravi Hrvati any day of the week and twice on Sunday.
Plus . I like to give our boys an opportunity as that is what is missing for our young people as a whole in Croatia.
Why import when you have talent all around you.
@ Vuki
I like the U21 project.
I pray they beat down Greece and qualify for U21 Euro and Olympics would be cool for our brand.
Maybe send the veterans back to clubs after England and bring in some young studs for Jordan friendly.
That England match is going to be on fire for England. They do not want to be relegated from tier A of UNL.
Rebic and Pjaca need to play a part in that match.
Kovačić getting his EPL rhythm is a plus as well.
Fans or no fans .. 6-0 needs a response by Dalić.
He needs to assess who is willing and able to bring it.
Budi ponosan
Vratari: Lovre Kalinić, Dominik Livaković, Karlo Letica
Braniči: Domagoj Vida, Dejan Lovren, Šime Vrsaljko, Josip Pivarić, Tin Jedvaj, Matej Mitrović, Borna Barišić, Antonio Milić
Vezni: Luka Modrić, Ivan Rakitić, Mateo Kovačić, Milan Badelj, Marcelo Brozović, Marko Rog, Mario Pašalić, Filip Bradarić
Napadači: Ivan Perišić, Andrej Kramarić, Ante Rebić, Marko Pjaca, Duje Čop, Ivan Santini, Marko Livaja
It’s silly to say if we had “these players” we win this tournament
What you mean to say, is our odds would’ve increased.
But even then, our odds of winning euro 2018 would never have been greater than 20 percent
Subasic injury was the worst.
He looked worse than Pletikosa against Brazil.
In fact that entire final was eerily similar to the France final.
Probably the 2 biggest bullshit results against us I’ve seen.
Great post maminjo! Totally agree.
I think the DaSilva injury was a hit on him.
The Dudu injury only six months before Euro2008 was the biggest hit of unluckiness by any team in a long time.
We were drawn into a group with an England team filled with stars, and Russia’s best team in over 40 years.
Many thought we would finish third in that group, and we qualified with pretty much two games to spare, eliminating England just for fun.
Our offense was beautiful and Dudu was the PERFECT striker for our midfield.
THEN we lose him to that horrible career ending injury.
What’s worse is that our second best striker (Ivan Klasnic) was recovering from kidney replacement surgery for some random kidney disorder (wtf?!).
He stil managed to make it back and score a couple of goals in limited playing time, but if he was 100% fit, he would have fit well with our team as well.
We played very well at Euro 2008 (easily topping the group), and we definitely were a top-3 team in that tournament with Spain and Netherlands. That should have been a Spain vs Croatia final.
Losing Dudu AND Klasnic to such a sudden ankle injury and a random kidney illness was INCREDIBLY unlucky.
With either of those two, we win Euro 2008.
No Brekalo in the main team again. I guess it’s fine since Kramaric and Rebic are back. They obviously care about qualifying for the U21 Euros which is good in my eyes.
Germany hosting is good news for us, we should do well
@ Andrej
Healthy Alen Boksic at ‘98 World Cup and we take it.
Rebić is 20 perocent of Boksic and we were two bad calls from taking it this summer.
You need that driving force to complement our world class technicians.
Healthy Alen Boksic is a site to behold.
Rebić gets to 50 percent of peak Boksic then we will win Euro 2020.
Or if Boksic wasn’t injured for WC 98
@King Bronk
Or if Dudu didn’t have his injury
BTW very few non journalists thought Modric was a bust. He was clearly talented enough that Real Madrid wanted him. It was just hard to find the perfect position for him. He played LM and CM for a 442 Tottenham. He is a deep lying play maker similar to Pirlo. When he first came to Real Madrid, he was playing the number 10 role behind Ozil while Khedira and Alsono were playing the DMF roles. It didn’t work out until he moved further back into a deeper midfield role. Not sure why the coach played him back in the 10 role against Sevilla on Wed because that was a disaster.
Considering guys like Halilovic, Coric, and Balic are not getting real playing time. I still think we have a very bright future with guys like Brekalo, Kovacic, and Benkovic. Can’t wait to watch the U21s in a couple weeks.
If Ibra played for Croatia instead of Sweden we would have won a major tournament. It will always be a shame that he didn’t play for Croatia.
lol cool bro
Goku Turcin.
https://www.uefa.com/insideuefa/about-uefa/news/newsid=2573282.html
Good news, Euro 2024 will be going to Germany instead of Turkey. But in the end…whats the difference? 😉
This is a great top 20 vid showcasing Luka’s genius
https://youtu.be/x9dhWUS_A7I
i think this article title solidifies zivas point
even when he didnt get off the right foot i never thought luka was a bust
Halilovic and Coric are better at the same age but who knows if they become good both are on the bench every game. Who knows who will win the Euro maybe Belgija.
WE ARE WINNING THE EURO. I HAVE SAID IT HERE 9/27/2018 AT 1109 AM EST.
Croatia’s soccer future has looked bright since the 2008 Euros. However, I don’t think our future has ever looked brighter. Not even close.
There are a few players that are better than Modric was at his age. For example, Brekalo, Vlasic, possibly Majer, etc… That doesn’t mean they will live up to their potential, but the possibility is there.
Messi has eclipsed Maradona. Maradona was a cheat he hand balled that goal should be taken of him FIFA should not count that Argentina goal it is a disgrace they still do. Messi won Golden Ball at World Cup 2014 and got Argentina to the Final. Maradona had a better Argentinian team around him than Messi. Halilovic/Coric maybe can.
Wow .. from bust to BEST
That’s why you never allow the media to disparage fellow Hrvati.
That goes double when they are pushing pravoslav agenda.
Luka Modrić achieved immortality as a nogometaš.
Fitting that he honored Boban .. the only other immortal.
There will never be another Luka Modrić.
But I do feel a major trophy in our future.
Hrvati always rise to the occasion.
Maybe it will be a world class coach .. finally!
Or an elite line of forwards that score at will?
Zidane has not been eclipsed by anyone in France nor Maradona by Messi or Pele by all the Brazilians that followed.
Luka is that level for us.
But our national team can evolve even more.
We are adding more to the talent pool and we can definitely improve on our leadership.
Curious to see how this perjury trial shakes out and the transition through UNL and Euro qualification, plus potential U21s Euro and maybe Olympics.
Rebić came on for 30 minutes and ran over three players to score first goal of bundesliga.
Dude is built to play 9 or even 10 for us.
Figure out how to best utilize his talents and the goals will follow.
He is the bridge between the veteran core and the potential U21s.
He will improve his precision as he plays more and more .. Olic like but a whole different size!
@Ante and the rest of Cro sports. Do you think we had more talent in the pipeline when Modric’s generation was coming up or now?
I’m not saying in hindsight but at the time when Modric was 20, 21 we’re you as optimistic for Croatia’s future then or with the crop of teens up to Kovacic let’s says age right now?
I don’t think we will see another Modric for some time but then again who knows. It all comes down to how our guys develop at their respective clubs however the war I think added a certain mindset that future generations may not have.