Meet Your Croat: Luka Modric

Let’s meet some of our midfielders in Meet Your Croat, volume VI:

Name: Luka Modric

Born: 9. 9. 1985 (age 22)

Position: Midfielder

Club: Dinamo Zagreb (future Tottenham Hotspur)

National Caps: 28 (4)

Biography:
Started his career in Dinamo Zagreb despite being born in Croatia’s south (Hajduk Split a popular choice). At 18 years of age he was sent on a loan to Bosnian side NK Zrinjski. There, despite his youth and somewhat fragile stature, he went on to become the league’s best overall player, scoring 8 times in 22 appearances. Often in his interviews Modric recalls back on his year spent at Zrinjski as a big experience which helped him both mature as a player and gain an invaluable amount of physical endurance, as Bosnian league has a reputation of being extremely hardy.

After impressing at Zrinjski, Modric was recalled to Dinamo but almost instantly sent on another loan, this time to a Zagreb suburb side, Inter Zapresic. There he excelled again, leading the usually modest side to the top of league at the season’s winter break. His performances were impressive enough for Dinamo to recall him to their side instantly.

After finally breaking through to Dinamo’s eleven, Modric has become one of the most influential players ever to grace the fields of both Dinamo and Croatian league. Soon after imposing himself at Dinamo and Croatia’s u21, Modric was called up by Bilic to the senior side. There, like perhaps everywhere before, he made an instant impact and became an invaluable asset to the team.

After 3 seasons and three league titles won with Dinamo, Modric was one of the talking points in last winter’s transfer gossip, with the likes of Barcelona, Chelsea, Arsenal being linked with him almost on a daily basis. However, after months and months of speculation, Tottenham Hotspur proved to be most decisive as they landed Modric with a record breaking €21m transfer fee.

On The Pitch:
Alpha and Omega. And Kappa. You rarely see anyone impose himself on a pitch the way Modric does. He’s your perfect modern playmaker: high work rate on defense and impeccable creativity on offense. Loves to dictate tempo. He’s often regarded as fragile due to his small stature, but his agility, acceleration and plain football wits are usually more than enough to compensate for this potential flaw.

Off The Pitch:
Described by everyone as modest and down to earth. He even captained Dinamo through the last season. Perhaps he doesn’t have that usual leadership charisma (my impression), but his play style gives him all the authority he needs when on the pitch. A genuinely loveable guy, except if you’re on the opposing team of course.

The Good: Vision & passing ability, technical, work rate, versatility, 2 footed, dictates the tempo
The Bad: Rarely ever a presence in air, not the strongest or most accurate shot in the house
The Random:
- played with Vedran Corluka back in Inter Zapresic as well
- childhood dream: Barcelona
- resembles Johan Cruyff in a couple of ways (not the image below mind you)

- cause that’s his reaction after signing for Spurs

And here are a couple of videos if you still haven’t seen him in action:

As always, enjoy.