It’s official: Luka Modric was the best footballer on the planet in 2018.
Journalists from around the world voted Modric the 2018 Ballon d’Or winner ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo, Antoine Griezmann, Kylian Mbappe and Lionel Messi.
The Real Madrid midfielder won his fourth Champions League title this year and captained Croatia to the World Cup final over the summer.
But how did Modric transform from a Premier League struggler with Tottenham to the best midfielder in the world?
We’ve looked into some of the major milestones from Modric’s journey to the Ballon d’Or.
A tough start at Tottenham
Modric couldn’t have joined Spurs at a worse time. His arrival in the summer of 2008, after an impressive start to his career with Dinamo Zagreb, was overshadowed by the high-profile exits of Robbie Keane and Dimitar Berbatov to Liverpool and Manchester United respectively.
In mid-October, Tottenham suffered their sixth Premier League defeat of the season at newly-promoted Stoke City. Modric, 23 at the time, struggled and was dropped by under-pressure boss Juande Ramos for the next game, a Uefa Cup group match at Udinese.
Spurs lost 2-0 in Italy and Ramos was sacked. Modric came off the bench after Jamie O’Hara’s red card but was completely exposed and alone in midfield, all of which is indicative of the way he was used under Ramos.
“I did my best but I was all alone in the middle,” Modric said after the game, according to the Guardian. “I couldn’t do any more. I was disappointed to start on the bench but it was the coach’s decision.”
Redknapp’s role change
Harry Redknapp gives Modric some… interesting instructions
The youngster clearly needed the right kind of coach to come in at Tottenham, somebody to put an arm around his shoulder and make the adaptation process less complicated.
Enter Harry Redknapp, far from a revolutionary but exactly what Modric required. The former Portsmouth manager literally put his arm around Modric after Spurs’ first league victory of the 2008/09 campaign, a 2-0 win over Bolton Wanderers at White Hart Lane.
“Change of position helped me a lot in my career. I used to play more offensively,” Modric said on Monday, via Standard Sport. “When I dropped back, I was able to read the game better and show my creativity. Harry Redknapp made that change.”
It’s worth noting Redknapp still played Modric on the left at times. It rarely worked, however, and the Croatian gradually became Tottenham’s most important player as a commanding central midfielder.
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From failure to four-time individual award winner.
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At the end of his first campaign at Real Madrid, following a big-money move from Spurs, Modric was voted La Liga’s worst signing of the season by Spanish newspaper Marca.
Much like his initiation at Tottenham, Modric struggled to get to grips with a new league and looked slightly out of his depth at times during the 2012/13 season. But despite Marca’s poll, he had begun to change opinions in the second half of the campaign.
Trailing to Manchester United at Old Trafford in the Champions League Round of 16, Modric came off the bench and scored a stunning equaliser to set Real Madrid on the path to victory.
His performances began to improve and he eventually became a mainstay in Madrid’s midfield, going on to form an ominously effective partnership with Toni Kroos. Modric helped his side win the Champions League and the Copa del Rey in 2013/14 – and that was just the start.
Champions League dominance
Modric’s contribution to Real Madrid’s dominance of Europe over recent years has been second only to that of Cristiano Ronaldo. The midfielder’s on-field supremacy was integral in each of the three Champions League titles the club won under Zinedine Zidane.
There is no better midfielder in world football than Modric when it comes to receiving the ball under pressure. Even in high-intensity finals, the 33-year-old is able to collect the ball with an opponent at his back, somehow escape and then start an attack.
This attribute was on full display in Madrid’s Champions League final victory over Liverpool back in May. In a game decided by moments of magic and madness, Modric kept a cool head and ensured his side won the midfield battle.
For a player who rarely scores – he has found the net no more than five times in a single season since leaving Croatia – Modric has an unerring ability to influence matches of the highest importance.
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It perhaps would have been fitting to see the best midfielder in the world lift the World Cup this summer. Modric came so close to captaining Croatia to the trophy in Russia, but France ended that dream in the final.
Modric has played 118 times for his country, and that experience showed in the semi-final against a youthful but ultimately unready England side. The Croatia skipper used all of his nous to dictate the pace of the latter stages and see off the Three Lions.
It ended in heartbreak, but that hasn’t stopped a flood of awards since. Modric won the World Cup Golden Ball, was named best male player at the Fifa Awards, won the Uefa Men’s Player of the Year award and, most recently, ended the Messi-Ronaldo Ballon d’Or duopoly.
He may now never lift a World Cup, but by winning the Ballon d’Or Modric has cemented his place in the pantheon of all-time greats.
The post How Luka Modric became the world’s best midfielder appeared first on Squawka News.
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