Luka ModricHis exit from the World Cup stage, and probably international football with it, did not turn out to be the beau idéal or the perfect 10, the number he has made his own with so much adoration and allure over the years. The end, however, was dramatic – and cruel. As Croatia thought Joško Guardiola’s late equalizer against Portugal was enough to defy the inevitable, enter VAR with its usual twist to turn it into a célèbre. Modrić, who looked stoically detached from the chaos around him, and his face reflected a sobering submission to fate, was slowly wrapped in a warm embrace Cristiano Ronaldo. It was a moment of catharsis. Of two middle-aged men, Ronaldo they will now go deeper into the tournament, but Modric’s fifth bid for the top prize will remain elusive. “I played with Luka for many years. We are almost the same age. He is a football legend; he is still a football legend because he continues to play so well and with such great quality. It is incredible,” Ronaldo later let his feelings out to the world. The 40-year-old Croatian — often hailed as the greatest player from the tiny, proud Central European country — brings the curtain down on his World Cup career with a silver and bronze medal, along with the Ballon d’Or and Bronze Ball. The athlete’s eternal thirst to complete the feat often comes with its own assumed value and reassuring order, but judging Modric through this perception is anything but conventional forgiveness. Because pity was never a prerequisite for creating passion in his game, because his football always pulsated with its life-affirming nature. This is where he is unique, perhaps offering a more humane conception of the sports hero. If Davor Šuker — the goalscorer par excellence — represented a symbol of hope and happiness for newly independent Croatia by helping them finish third at the 1998 World Cup, Modrić continued that legacy, serving as a bridge between the country’s stunning arrival and its new identity in the 21st century as a soccer powerhouse. Modrić himself was a child of the Croatian battle for independence, his early years turned him into a refugee who moved from one place to another in search of survival. Fortunately, instead of taking up arms, he found peace in the midst of football chaos. His football has since sought to restore order to disorder, and this has helped him rise above the mediocrity. In his wonderfully alluring presence, in those sumptuous off-the-foot shots or crosses, beauty resided like an object of transcendent elegance, like Roger Federer’s backhand — evoking the mystique of how he turns defense into attack, and attack into a winner before his opponents can even fathom it. Like any number 10, he was the quintessential dreamer with the ball. Tottenham gave him the platform to announce his arrival, and at Real Madrid he truly found his dramatic stage to realize his dream, combining his method with an unflinching rhetorical imagination. It was never stereotypical, but a symphony of pure joy. His rise as the heartbeat of the Spanish club coincided with Croatia’s most successful period in international football, finishing second at the 2018 World Cup and third four years later in Qatar. In his last dance on the world stage, he might stagger like an aged king, but not before wowing the crowd. Football will feel a little empty now, but Modric’s legacy will be lasting.
