Modric, the most decorated player in the club’s history, will take his bow at Bernabeu todayThe ball hung in the Bernabeu air like a well-flighted Shane Warne leg-break before dipping. Rodrygo was there to meet it and the Brazilian’s well-placed right-footer turned a losing game for Real Madrid — the 2022 Champions League quarterfinal against Chelsea. But the invisible man behind that moment of magic was a certain Luka Modric, who will take the field at Bernabeu, an address he called his home for 13 years, one last time on Saturday against Real Sociedad.
Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!That piece of play, when the then 36-year-old got the ball halfway into the Chelsea half and essayed that beautiful long ball with his right outstep which had Rodrygo’s name written all over it, was one of those Modric moments that the world had come to savour over the last decade and a half. It started in Tottenham Hotspur in 2008 where the little Croatian flowered into a midfielder with a lot of promise. Soon enough, Jose Mourinho and Real came calling in 2012.
Who's that IPL player?Everything about the transfer was difficult — from Modric forcing his way out of Spurs at the back-end of the window to an indifferent beginning at the Spanish capital. Nothing was going right and the Spanish media didn’t take too long to dub the Modric transfer as “the worst of the year”. In a league which was ruled by Barcelona maestros Xavi Hernandez, Iniesta and Sergio Busquets, Modric looked a misfit. But he found a staunch defender in Mourinho. “All I ask of Madridistas is to give Luka time and be patient. He is so good that the Santiago Bernabeu will fall in love with his class,” Mourinho said.
The Portuguese tactician himself didn’t last as Real coach beyond that season, but his prophecy has come true. Thirteen summers later, the Fifa Club World Cup in June will be Modric’s last stop for Los Blancos, when Xabi Alonso would step up to helm the La Casa Blanca. The 39-year-old Croatian hopes to play the 2026 World Cup and he wanted a final extension at the club he calls home. But ruthless Real are at a crossroads and Alonso is probably looking for players with greater lung power than the aging centrocampista with whom he shared the dressing-room for two years between 2012-14.
An injured Alonso had watched from the sidelines Modric’s inch perfect corner in the dying seconds of the 2014 Champions League final that resulted in the famous Sergio Ramos equalizer against Atletico Madrid. It culminated in the Decima, sparking the silverware surge that the midfielder enjoyed since then with the club. Modric was joined by the German maestro Toni Kroos in 2014 and the Brazilian bull Casemiro. While the three complemented each other, the beauty of Modric was he could play in all three positions — No. 6, 8 and 10 - in the midfield. For the national team he was the central midfielder starting play, at Real his best position was behind the attacking three.
Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema or Vinicius Junior surely have lost count of Modric’s assists. His ability to break the lines and find space for his attackers made him a master of his craft. Add to that the occasional piledriver from distance that broke frustrating deadlocks.
As he grew older and saw curtailed game-time, Modric was used more to control the pace of the game when things started getting chaotic. Even during the last Clasico when Real were trailing 2-4 at half-time and just didn’t know how to deal with the young and restless Barcelona attack, Carlo Ancelotti, who will also have his Bernabeu farewell on Saturday, brought in the Croatian. Real didn’t win the game — they lost 3-4 — but Modric saved a shambolic defence from the humiliation that they suffered in the first session with some smart covering.
For the aesthete and the purist, Modric is one of the last surviving breed of midfielders who are more cerebral than physical. It’s slowly going extinct. Those who are more statistically inclined will remember his Real Madrid stint for the Ballon d’Or that he won in 2018. He broke the hegemony of Leo Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. His Champions League winning run and captaining Croatia to the 2018 World Cup final earned him the coveted prize, the first east European to win it since Igor Belanov (1986).
Many would feel Modric, who often gets standing ovations while getting subbed off at the most hostile away venues in La Liga these days, deserved one last year at Real Madrid. But the disaster of 2024-25, when the trophy-hungry machine finished without its annual diet and were miles behind Barcelona, brought a swift end to a beautiful journey. Not too long ago, Atletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone had told him during a game: “Luka, come and play with us”. Modric won’t oblige. He is too much in love with the white shirt. It’s Bernabeu’s turn on Saturday to show one last time the affection that is absolutely mutual.
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