00:06Luka Modric!
00:08No Croatian footballer has achieved more in their career than Luka Modric.
00:14And few footballers of any nationality have reached Modric's heights
00:18and made it look so effortless.
00:21Luka showed us that it's easy to play.
00:26Believe me, it's really, really hard to play football.
00:30To play World Cup, it's even harder.
00:33And he plays like it's normal.
00:37It's like a dance for him.
00:40Modric's club career is topped by a record equaling six Champions League titles.
00:46At international level, he was named the best player of the 2018 World Cup.
00:50And as an individual, he was voted the best footballer in the world,
00:55at the height of the Lionel Messi-Christian Ronaldo duopoly.
01:03It's a great honour, and I am very happy after receiving this great award.
01:09I've worked hard to be where I am today.
01:12This year has been fantastic.
01:14It wasn't just one of the best, it was the best of my life and my career.
01:22I have won a lot with Real Madrid, and with Croatia I reached the World Cup final.
01:28And also I won a lot of individual awards like this one.
01:33So this year is just unforgettable.
01:36I will remember it forever.
01:44Modric is two decades at the top of world football,
01:47belay his challenges getting there.
01:49In many ways, he is the embodiment of modern Croatia
01:52and the breakdown of the former Yugoslavia.
01:58Born in 1985 in a hamlet near the coastal town of Zadar on the Adriatic coast,
02:05Modric was named after his grandfather,
02:07who looked after him on the family farm,
02:09while both his parents worked long hours at a knitting factory.
02:16By five, he was helping Luca Sr. tend goats and sheep.
02:20But at six, at the height of the Croatian War of Independence,
02:25his grandfather was shot and killed by Serbian rebel forces,
02:29and the family home was torched.
02:32In his autobiography, Modric described his terrible memories.
02:38My heart breaks every time I think of my grandfather dying.
02:42Literally on his doorstep.
02:46For the next seven years, Modric and his family lived in a refugee centre
02:51in a hotel in the heart of Zadar.
02:56He would spend his days kicking a football in the old hotel car park,
03:00frequently running to safety as his town came under attack.
03:07Somehow, amongst the carnage,
03:10Modric's footballing ability continued to blossom.
03:16At 12, he trialled with Hajduk Split,
03:19but they rejected him because of his size.
03:24Dinamar Zagreb eventually took him aged 16,
03:27and after a year in the youth team,
03:29his extraordinary professional career began.
03:35Dinamar loaned 18-year-old Modric to Zrinski Mostar,
03:40and he ended his first season of senior football
03:43with the Bosnian Premier League Player of the Year award.
03:49Then they loaned 19-year-old Modric to Inter Zaspersic,
03:53where he earned the Croatian Young Player of the Year award.
03:59Fully prepared for the top level,
04:01Modric then went on to win a hat-trick of titles with Dinamar,
04:05and a pair of Croatian Cups for good measure.
04:09He left Croatia for the English Premier League,
04:11having just received the first of what would become an absurd
04:1513 Croatian Player of the Year awards.
04:20Tottenham Hotspur equalled their transfer record
04:23to bring Modric to London.
04:26But it looked a questionable decision,
04:28as the willowy schemer took time to adapt
04:30to the frenetic pace and physicality of English football.
04:36But adapt he did.
04:38And his reputation grew during four years at White Hart Lane,
04:42especially as Spurs began to assert themselves in European competition,
04:47catching the eye of Real Madrid
04:49in the move that would define his career.
04:54At Real, Ronaldo's goal-scoring feats hogged the headlines,
04:59and Madridistas adored the leadership of Sergio Ramos.
05:03But it was Modric who knitted everything together
05:05and made the team tick.
05:09In his second season at the Bernabeu,
05:12he won the first of six Champions League titles
05:14and was named the best midfielder in La Liga.
05:18His consistency and endurance since
05:20has seen him elevated to the status of legend,
05:23the biggest club in the world.
05:28As Modric's star ascended at club level,
05:31so did results with the national team.
05:34Dictating matches from the middle of the pitch,
05:36he was a perfect international captain,
05:39steering Croatia to second place at Russia 2018,
05:43then third place at Qatar 2022.
05:46I think everybody in the world knows the value of Luka Modric.
05:52He's unbelievable.
05:57He's our captain, our leader, our best player.
06:00We are proud to have him in the team,
06:02and for me it's an honor and privilege to play with him,
06:05to train with him, to work with him.
06:11His exploits in Russia earned him the World Cup golden ball,
06:15despite France prevailing in the final.
06:21He would later add the Ballon d'Or to his collection,
06:24becoming the first player in 11 years to win more votes
06:27than either Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo.
06:33Slightly built, often underestimated,
06:37but supremely skillful and ferociously competitive,
06:41Luka Modric is a leader any country would be proud of,
06:44and the kind that makes Croatia such a successful football nation.
06:50Do us-
06:50Okay, watch a king!
06:51Santa Frank is a series for seiner Moriwalsis and raps.
06:52So it does not deserve楽ies in this.
Comments