Croatia and Real Madrid midfielder Luka Modrić finished fifth in Ballon d’or voting Thursday night in Paris- which names the best football player on the planet.
Modrić finished only behind teammate and winner of the award Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Neymar and Gianluigi Buffon, ESPNFC reports.
Modrić is already known to be the best center midfielder in the business and now he has officially been ranked above the likes of Sergio Ramos, Harry Kane, Luis Suarez and Robert Lewandowski, to name a few.
This beaner no he is a carpet bagger.
So I hate being that guy now but now is the Spaniard cool to play for cro cause he white?
It’s fine by me if he really wants to come play for us and becomes a citizen…
Would he have a legit shot at playing for us? I guess hard to say with the potential new batch of players after World Cup
Thanks Toronto Croatia. He should play for us. Good for him. I hope so decent talent.
Lovro// Pay kein attention to big tough guy Idemo. Been here a short time, but long enuf to know he ist ein scheiße.
Double your money? Wow big tough guy! Why would anyone wager wit ein loser like du, when wir can walk to our local William Hill and see France is -300 to win their group. Had you said -400 u wud be getting props, and soccer cred.
Preach!
mandzo is trash just missed a sitter
Who’d u get that resource from cigan 😉
Mandzukic Perisic and Brozo are starting, link;
https://www.reddit.com/r/soccerstreams/comments/7iocpu/1945_gmt_juventus_inter_milan/
@gbv
Understood but I think you missed my point
@ Maminjo
Great post. Ya know funny thing, I was just thinking the other day how Croatia’s best game at the group stage has historically been the 2nd game.
I guess by the time the 2nd game rolls around, Croatia are JUICED and into the FLOW of the tournament. So this when they “click” or “peak” so to speak, as far as the Group Stage is concerned. The third game well…that’s when the incidents of choking have occurred.
This is why I’m glad we actually play Argentina in the 2nd game. As if history is any guide, perhaps they’ll “peak” in this match.
@ Truth
The only reason why Buffon is ranked so high up is because they know this is his last season. So it’s more or less a symbolic gesture, it’s more like a nod to lifetime achievement.
But yeah if Buffon wasn’t there it’s NOT inconceivable to see Modric in the 4th position.
Spanish Dani Olmo wants to play for Croatia…
https://www.croatiaweek.com/spanish-teenage-talent-wants-to-play-for-croatia/
Idemo
Almost every player out there is described as looking like they play better for club than country.
Playing frequently with familiar club teammates versus only periodically with far-less-familiar country teammates …. this isn’t surprising.
@maminjo, great post there. i have a great feeling about this world cup. we should not have any fear. i believe we will beat argentina. i believe we will top the group. i believe france will top their group also and we will avoid them. we will play a lesser team in the last 16 everyone will suddenly become overconfident on this site and in the end we will almost lose that game, scrape through yo the quarters and then…….who knows. it all goes a little hazy i see coulors maybe smiling faces
Can we also message how stupid it is that buffon is in this ranking?
Firstly i strongly doubt he is the best goal keeper in the world if you even measured it properly…. Secondly i doubt they do measure it properly
If i were to start a team, i would probably pick at least 200 players before buffon
And no one would ever pick him fifth
….. Which opens the question…. Would people really pick modric fourth???…. Maybe…. Not inconceivable
So basically the 3rd game is bad when are backs against it.
Definitely choked against Turkey in ’08.
Olic had no finish, tying goal in the 120th and terrible nerves on the pk’s.
Very nicely laid out.
Awesome post. Straight facts.
We always play the first game tight. Doesn’t matter who it is.
Turkey, Jamaica, Mexico, Switzerland, Brazil, Austria, Ireland, Brazil (again), Turkey (again). All of these openers were close except for Jamaica and Ireland, but they both managed to tie it at 1-1 before we went on to win each game 3-1.
We have a 5W-3L-1D record in the first game…so we generally do win the openers (unless the team is Brazil).
Second game is always AT LEAST a draw or a big win for us. We played many good teams in our second games too, but we always seem to come out on top…and even when we draw, we were still the better team and it ended in a draw due to some unfortunate error.
Denmark, Japan, Italy, France, Japan (again), Germany, Italy (again), Cameroon, Czech.
We are undefeated in our second game and we beat some big teams there. We had some unfortunate draws against Japan and Czech, but we outplayed both. We hammered Germany, Cameroon and Denmark though.
5W-0L-4D is a very impressive record, especially against these teams.
Third game is a wildcard, and the results are all over the place. We don’t actually ‘choke’ this game every tournament…but it’s wildly inconsistent.
Portugal, Argentina, Ecuador, England, Australia, Poland, Spain, Mexico, and Spain (again).
Our record is 2W-6L-1D…but that record is deceptive.
We played our ‘B squads’ in against Portugal and Argentina in our first two tournaments (after already securing qualification), so I wouldn’t call this a choke.
We did the same thing with Poland and Spain (but we actually beat both of them with our B squads).
Losing to a strong England during our weakest years was not a choke, and neither was the bullshit loss to Spain at Euro2012.
We choked in the losses to Ecuador and Mexico, and the draw with Australia.
The solution: Play our ‘B squad’ against Iceland
Well if past tourneys are anything to go by we’ll drop points in the 1st game, have a great result in the 2nd game and then choke in the 3rd game.
I’m actually not worried about the Argentina game. I think we’ll play them well. It’s also not our first or last game, and we always seem to play well in that second game.
I expect a draw.
It’s that first Nigeria game that can fuck things up for us if we lose points.
Double *
I’ll bet you France wins their group…..gotta deposit money today I’ll doune anything you bet
Don’t be too sure that France will win their group. Politics and racism has fucked them over in previous World Cups and always is in play.
I think it’s now or NEVER for Luka Modric….as this is his last chance to define his legacy at the national team level. So he must go all out!
In fact this is the last kick of the World Cup can for a buncha players: Mandzukic, Kalinic, Rakitic, Corluka, Strinic, Subasic etc. So I think they will want to give 100% effort in their last chance at World Cup glory.
If we can just somehow friggin’ win the group, it will set us up for a run, as it avoids France. That’s why that Argentina game is so vital.
Last year the sentiment here was Modric plays better for Madrid he’s not good on the repka…..what’s changed?
Agree modric puts his heart into playing for us
I don’t envy him the pressure on him is huge. He has the weight of all of Croatia on him
Basically if he doesn’t play at his best we don’t go anywhere
We have other quality players but we all know the Croatian engine doesn’t turn without him playing as the man
I too don’t feel that he is a natural leader but slowly he has learned how to be and he is one that leads by example
These years at real while he wasn’t necessarily the man though he also realized the Madrid engine just ain’t the same without Luka’s oil in it plain and simple
I believe he will leave it all out there this summer and then some. If others do the same with a bit of luck we do have enough talent to make some noise if not a huge racket
He has helped to put Croatia once again back on the soccer map. Cause of him scouts spend that much more time looking at our youth looking for the next modric
Respect to his career
World Cup is his chance to make him into a living soccer legend
+1 on Suker > Modric (and I love Modric)
Regarding the argument about Modric’s great club run. That also happens to coincide with his team having:
1-the best or 2nd best player in the world in Ronaldo
2-the best LB, Marcelo
3-1 of the best MFs in Kroos
4-and a crapload of other great players
In reading the Real Madrid forums, everytime they lose, the dopey RM fans blame Modric.
Fake truth comments above
In other news
The Croatian community is truly fortunate to have modric to play and watch for all this time. A generational talent that Croatia is unlikely to see possibly for decades after he is gone
Despite the mamic issues, i think he actually bleeds for checkers and it means a lot to him
Zee stop talking with yourself. Go see a doctor
The more I look at our World Cup group, the more I realize that we are in the Group of Death.
Every group has at least one mediocre team, lucky to be in the World Cup. We essentially have three Pot B teams, along with Argentina in our group.
Worst of all, we cross over with France, lol.
It will be an interesting tournament, that’s for sure.
Get lost jerk!
i know you are but what am i
Whoever is using my name screw off! Pog that’s not me!
Poglavnik youre an idiot
If Modric were a better leader he’d demand to play higher and in a more offensively influential position.
He’s too soft spoken.
I too have witnessed the Magic of Suker….
But I can tell you that for most of his career, Modric, didn’t have an opportunity to lead as he was mostly deployed as a deep lying midfielder. He couldn’t really contribute goals and assists from that position….
But when he was pushed further forward as in the last 3 games vs Ukraine and Greece, now there he was able to LEAD by providing substantial contributions in the attacking third.
He needs to continue to play in that position, and hopefully he LEADS Croatia to a deep run in WC ’18….and rekindle the magic of Suker…
On the 20 year anniversary of Croatia epic run, wouldn’t it be something if they did it again!
If you aint first, youre last
@ Branko
“98 crew was stacked with World Class players and Boksic was the one that fired them into World Cup before injurying his knee.
Modrić has been wasted for years with sub par coaches and miss management by Šuker as president of HNS.
Šuker was “the man” as a goal scorer.
Modrić is the ONE as a footballer. And over the last 4 years has had the greatest club run of form of any nogometaš.
If Modrić leads us to the promise land then he eclipses Šuker hands down.
*Correction: shorter” international” careers for Boban and Prosinecki…
@LAKnat:
Exactly. Suker came 3rd in the equivalent FIFA World Player of the Year, was the Golden Boot and Silver Ball in the 1998 World Cup, is the all-time top scorer for Croatia (45 goals in 69 matches), and the only Croat in “FIFA 100” list as well as Croatia’s Golden Player for the UEFA 2003 Jubilee anniversary.
Modric is a genius indeed, but he’s not even close to Suker when it comes to actually scoring goals (241 vs 73) nor has he LED Croatia as far as 3rd place in the World Cup by creating his own scoring opportunities (some of the youngsters really ought to realize that most of Suker’s goals was improvised counter-attacks magic that came out of nowhere).
Being a midfielder is also not much of an excuse when the likes of Boban and Prosinecki have more prolific goal records than Modric with shorter careers, by the way.
I don’t particularly like Suker outside the field, but when it comes to Croatian football he is still “The Man”.
Modric leads vatreni to winning world cup…..goes down as greatest ever????
We are blessed to witness the CLASS of Modric. He’s truly a genius on the pitch!
Plus he has such an amazing touch and elegance with the ball.
^ ^
Whoops that’s me.
And that first part is definitely sarcasm.
What a bust!
@LAknat
Not sure if that’s sarcasm but Suker did finish 3rd in the vote in ’98
Rijeka 2 AC Milan 0
Che capitano
Nice goal for Vlasic in a nothing game….. but still.
The World has recognized in Luka Modrić what we have always known … he is genius.
well I guess Suker still better
Modric must prove his capability in World Cup