00:04Luka Modric!
00:07No Croatian footballer has achieved more in their career than Luka Modric.
00:13And few footballers of any nationality have reached Modric's heights and made it look so effortless.
00:20Luka showed us that it's easy to play.
00:25Believe me, it's really, really hard to play football.
00:29To play World Cup, it's even harder.
00:31And he plays like it's normal. It's like a dance for him.
00:39Modric's club career is topped by a record equaling six Champions League titles.
00:45At international level, he was named the best player at the 2018 World Cup.
00:49And as an individual, he was voted the best footballer in the world,
00:54at the height of the Lionel Messi-Christian Ronaldo duopoly.
01:02It's a great honour, and I am very happy after receiving this great award.
01:07I've worked hard to be where I am today. This year has been fantastic.
01:13It wasn't just one of the best. It was the best of my life and my career.
01:21I have won a lot with Real Madrid, and with Croatia I reached the World Cup final.
01:27And also I won a lot of individual awards like this one.
01:31So this year is just unforgettable. I will remember it forever.
01:43Modric's two decades at the top of world football belie his challenges getting there.
01:48In many ways, he is the embodiment of modern Croatia
01:51and the breakdown of the former Yugoslavia.
01:57Born in 1985 in a hamlet near the coastal town of Zadar on the Adriatic coast,
02:04Modric was named after his grandfather, who looked after him on the family farm,
02:08while both his parents worked long hours at a knitting factory.
02:15By five, he was helping Luca Sr. tend goats and sheep.
02:19But at six, at the height of the Croatian War of Independence,
02:24his grandfather was shot and killed by Serbian rebel forces,
02:28and the family home was torched.
02:31In his autobiography, Modric described his terrible memories.
02:36My heart breaks every time I think of my grandfather dying.
02:41Literally on his doorstep.
02:45For the next seven years, Modric and his family lived in a refugee centre
02:50in a hotel in the heart of Zadar.
02:55He would spend his days kicking a football in the old hotel car park,
02:59frequently running to safety as his town came under attack.
03:06Somehow, amongst the carnage, Modric's football
03:10morning ability continued to blossom.
03:14At 12, he trialled with Hajduk Split, but they rejected him because of his size.
03:23Dinamar Zagreb eventually took him aged 16,
03:26and after a year in the youth team, his extraordinary professional career began.
03:34Dinamar loaned 18-year-old Modric to Zrinski Mostar,
03:38and he ended his first season of senior football with the Bosnian Premier League Player of the Year award.
03:47Then they loaned 19-year-old Modric to Inter Zaspersic,
03:52where he earned the Croatian Young Player of the Year award.
03:58Fully prepared for the top level, Modric then went on to win a hat-trick of titles with Dinamar,
04:04and a pair of Croatian Cups for good measure.
04:07He left Croatia for the English Premier League,
04:10having just received the first of what would become an absurd 13 Croatian Player of the Year awards.
04:19Tottenham Hotspur equalled their transfer record to bring Modric to London.
04:24But it looked a questionable decision, as the willowy schemer took time to adapt to the frenetic pace and physicality
04:32of English football.
04:35But adapt he did, and his reputation grew during four years at White Hart Lane,
04:41especially as Spurs began to assert themselves in European competition,
04:45catching the eye of Real Madrid in the move that would define his career.
04:53At Real, Ronaldo's goalscoring feats hogged the headlines,
04:57and Madridistas adored the leadership of Sergio Ramos.
05:01But it was Modric who knitted everything together and made the team tick.
05:08In his second season at the Bernabeu, he won the first of six Champions League titles,
05:13and was named the best midfielder in La Liga.
05:16His consistency and endurance since has seen him elevated to the status of legend,
05:22the biggest club in the world.
05:24I'll see you next time.
05:24Bye.
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