Luka Modric Deserves to Be Up There on Any Best Players List

Luka Modric has had a great year at the Bernabeu, where he took one of the key roles in bringing La Decima to the club. Despite a disappointing showing at the World Cup, marred by fitness concerns, the Croatian playmaker deserves all the accolades coming his way.

Oh yes, it’s that time of the year again. Everyone is compiling annual “Top Players” lists, and Modric is set to feature prominently in all of them.

One of the first lists to appear was FourFourTwo’s traditional “100 Best Players in the World,” ranking him 18th. “Although 90% of what Modric does with the ball is pleasingly simple, the rest is dazzling brilliance,” writes James Maw.

Indeed, the player has come a long way from a difficult start in Spain, with Marca naming him La Liga’s biggest transfer flop of the year in 2012. Two years later, the same paper gave him the LFP Award for best midfielder in the league, and he was also chosen for the UEFA Champions League Team of the Season.

Although counter-attacks are still Real Madrid’s biggest strength, what Carlo Ancelotti did in Real Madrid was changing the way they play. The run-and-gun football of the Mourinho era gave way to something more subtle and patient, increasing the team’s average ball possession in the process and making them less dependent on Xabi Alonso.

Andres Kudacki/Associated Press

Last season’s multifunctional trivote, with Alonso operating in front of the back four, aided by Modric and Angel Di Maria on either side of him, enabled Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema to run riot in the attack, while it also did a very good job in protecting the defence. It gave the team better balance and a greater fluidity between the lines.

Modric has been at the heart of that transformation.

Like Maw argues in FourFourTwo, he may now be their second most important Galactico, only behind Cristiano Ronaldo. And he continued to play a key role in midfield after the changes in the roster that took place last summer, so coping with his injury-induced absence is currently the biggest challenge Ancelotti is facing.

One man always knew Modric was going to be a huge success at the biggest stage, despite the recurring doubts that followed him wherever he went.

“In every club he played for, they’d first say he’s weak and lightweight. But his seemingly slight build is deceptive. Luka is strong,” said Tomislav Basic, one of Modric’s early coaches, when I interviewed him back in the summer of 2012. “You’ll see, it may take some time, but he will become a key player for Real Madrid. I know this,” he concluded.

Basic is often credited as the man who “made” Modric.

Manu Fernandez/Associated Press

He was the one who took him under his wing, worked with him individually and helped build his confidence. When Real Madrid won the Champions League, Modric dedicated the win to his old coach who passed away just three months before that (via ESPNFC) and never got to see the biggest moment in his disciple’s career.

The Croatian mini-maestro deserves a place among the very best on any annual best players list. If there is one detail, one feature of his play that sets him apart, then coach Basic described it best.

“Notice how he moves towards the ball to receive the pass and controls it with a single touch before making a half-turn to create space or evade a challenge. No one else can do it quite like him.”

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