Luka Modric is finally in football-the Olympus arrived. The 33-year-old Croatian Vice-champion of the world from Real Madrid was voted in London at the world’s best Kicker. In his home he is idolized and heavily criticized.
The top arrived – Luka Modric
No Tattoos. No Gossip Stories. No gelled hair. Instead, old-fashioned middle parting. Hardly any Details of the private life. In modern football, Luka Modric seems to be all of the time.
The 1.72 Meter small captain of the Croatian national team is shy, does not speak, are reluctant to, press conferences and Interviews he likes. Outside of the square he doesn’t want to stand out the most. It is difficult for him to talk about himself, he once said the newspaper “The world”.
On the field, but he is the boss. “The war, the camps, life in refugee camps, have made me hard,” said Modric, who had to leave at the beginning of the war in Croatia in 1991 with the family of his native village. Hard enough to pass the competition at Real Madrid. “El Pony”, as his teammates call it, wears the number 10 in the “Royal” – the appreciation of his services. Modric is at the same time, fighters and technicians. His trademark: the toxic pass passes. About 30 to 40 meters.
“The best Croatian player of all time”
Modric is running strong, constantly on the move. He runs to the front and rear, dribbles and is not afraid of a duel, accepts responsibility. Despite his size, he is surprisingly good in the tackle, falls through the filigree ball handling and excellent Overview. Thanks to these properties, he was already a FIFA election against Mohamed Salah and Christian Ronaldo received the prestigious trophy.
The star of the Croatian football: In the case of the 2018 world Cup Croatia became the Vice-champion of the world
For the midfield-Star of Real Madrid, it is the next big award in this year. At the world Cup in Russia, he received after the lost final against France, the Golden Ball for the best player of the tournament. Recently, he was elected to the European footballer of the year.
“Luka is not only the best of our current players, he is the best Croatian player of all time,” enthused team-mate Ivan Rakitic (FC Barcelona), during the tournament in Russia. As a tireless clock, and endurance runners Modric convinced all the skeptics, even in Croatia.
Luka and the godfather
Here, it seemed, he put on the world Cup-the way of lawn effortlessly all the fuss that was raised to the charge of false statement after his appearance in the trial against the brothers Zdravko and Zoran Mamic. This is the second story of Luka Modric.
He was heard because of his change in 2008 from Dinamo Zagreb to Tottenham Hotspur and had initially claimed to have with the former Dinamo Boss is the division of the transfer of the proceeds agreed. Later, Modric withdrew this statement, suddenly, he could no longer remember the Details of immoral contracts. In the case of a conviction for perjury footballer of the year threaten the world up to six years in prison.
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The court in the Croatian Osijek saw it as proven that the brothers Mamic misappropriated in a variety of player transfers around 15 million euros and 1.6 million euros in taxes. The main perpetrators of Zdravko Mamic, also known as the godfather of the Croatian football known, was the start of criminal by fleeing to Bosnia-Herzegovina. The judgment is not yet final.
Modric is loved and hated
For his football skills, the national team captain is admired in Croatia, literally. At the same time he has lost but by his strange appearances before the court, many sympathies. There are many disappointed Fans who have no understanding at all for his zig-zag course in “Causa Mamic” – and his dodgy Connections to the puppet masters of the Croatian football.
A day after the spectacular turnaround in the Mamic process were hung up in his home town of Zadar posters with invective. On the facade of the hotel in which the then six-year-old Modric had found with his family during the war in the 1990s as a refugee shelter, was read: “Luka, this is a day you will remember.”
Patriotism as the highest bid
On the one hand, one may expect from athletes that they are role models, says Dario Brentin from the centre for Southeast European studies at the University of Graz, on the other hand, “is Modric wheel but as a small (custom) in the corrupt and crony Croatian Mamic-controlled football machinery seen. In this sense, his missteps are forgiven.”
There is a certain ambivalence whether Modrics Person. The euphoria and the Pride on the achievements of the national team do not prevail, but clearly, this is only Brentins opinion. Because the athletes are referred to in Croatia for years by many as the best ambassadors of the country. The policy knows how to use the and basks in the glow of the national team. “Sport has a Central role for the national identity,” said Brentin to the DW.
Suspect: Luka Modric is accused of false testimony in the case Mamic’
The journalists, the investigative with the scandals and critically about the role of the national player of the reports, are often referred to as “traitors to the Fatherland”. As Aleksander Holiga is called from the web portal Telesport: “If one assumes that the national players represent not only the Croatian Sport, but also the entire state, then the support of the ‘Fiery’ (as the national team is, note. d. R.) as a kind of Supreme Patriotic duty.”
All other questions and problems in Croatian football and in the country itself, to be treated, characterized in nachranging. Those who do not want to accept it, is to be stamped as a traitor, reported Holiga from my own experience.
The end of an Era
With Modrics choice of an Era in world football ends. For the first Time in ten years a different Star as Christian Ronaldo or Lionel Messi is rewarded with the most important individual award. He writes thus of the Croatian sports history, says Holiga. His choice for the world’s best footballer was absolutely the right message, in spite of all the irritation to his statements, and Connections with Mamic clan. “Players like Modric are kind of the opposite of modern football,” Holiga. Because nowadays, especially the individual skills are celebrated and glorified themselves to be performers. Talking about heroes. “Modric is not a braggart, he is above all a team player, the heart of the team, your engine. He connects the individual parts of the team and makes them better,” says Aleksander Holiga from the Croatian web portal Telesport.