From Flop to the World's Best: Reliving the magnificent rise of Luka Modric

The Croatian midfielder has seen a remarkable rise in recent seasons being at the heart of Los Bancos' unprecedented continental success.

After securing his move to European giants Real Madrid in 2012, life wasn’t that well and good for Luka Modric, initially. The Croatian's slow start under the stout Jose Mourinho would make him the scapegoat for Madrid’s shortcomings back then. He was also named as the “worst signing of the season” by Marca. But, after being recently named as FIFA's Best Player of the Year, the Croatian has proved his doubters wrong and lived an incredible tale to success.

Looking back at it, however hilariously wrong the judgment might seem, it could be guessed that Modric would’ve never hit top gear unless he received the boost from that criticism. In the Premier League, life was relatively easy for him as he played for Tottenham Hotspur, a side who are never under any pressure to perform at the top level. But for a club like Real Madrid, that “jump” seemed to even startle the Croatian wizard initially.

With the persistent Mourinho breathing down his neck to attain peak fitness, Modric started to flourish at Madrid towards the end of the season. After the Portuguese was replaced by Carlo Ancelotti, things got even better for Modric. Ancelotti, once a majestic midfielder himself, saw all the good qualities in the midfield ace and enabled him to let them out. The pressure (and attention) was transferred to Madrid’s golden goose Cristiano Ronaldo, who absolutely thrives under the limelight to perform.

This enabled Modric to operate more freely in midfield and with the assuring presence of Xabi Alonso beside him, he discreetly started to make things happen for Los Blancos. Modric was La Liga’s most efficient passer in his second season with Los Blancos, averaging a 90% passing accuracy in La Liga and also boasting the balls recovered that season. He won the LFP Award for the Best Midfielder in La Liga that season and also played an important part in their Champions League success. The Croatian had a terrific Champions League campaign, assisting three important goals in the knockout stages, including that stunning 93rd-minute equalizer for Sergio Ramos in the finale, something which solidified him into the Champions League Team of the Season.

The 2014-15 campaign was a bit of a disappointing one for Modric, who was injured for three months because of the thigh knock he suffered in an international match against Italy. That would have a significant effect on Madrid’s game, which saw a real drop in quality with the influential midfielder out of action. Madrid would go onto crash out of the Champions League and lose out in the La Liga title race as well, with Ancelotti himself admitting that Los Blancos failed mostly because of the absence of Modric from the team.

Watch: The FIFA World Cup 2018 - Golden Ball Winner

The Italian would be mercilessly sacked by Florentino Perez after the disappointing campaign and the unpopular hiring of Rafa Benitez as coach didn’t please too many Madrid players. Despite outlining Modric as a key midfield player for him, Benitez failed badly at Madrid and was sacked midway through the campaign. Queue the entry of Zinedine Zidane as Real Madrid manager and Los Blancos' fortunes would pick up from that point.

Zidane was a great admirer of Modric, mostly because of how the Croatian’s style reminded him of himself. While the midfielder didn’t have the physical presence or goalscoring threat that Zidane did, he was a similar majestic tailor who loved stitching together plays in midfield. It was noticed how much of a bigger role Modric played under Zidane, as it was him who linked defense and attack for Los Blancos. Modric was termed as a “Master of the Game” by Spanish newspapers after the amount of influence he started to have on the team's game.

The 2015/16 season was a revolutionary one for the Croatian, who won six Man of the Match awards in one campaign, which was more than the amount he had won in the whole of his Madrid career. Modric was a sensation to watch that season and sparked the amazing turnaround under Zidane and along with Ronaldo, influenced another Champions League triumph. Modric was named in almost every Team of the Year that season, including the FIFA World XI and UEFA Team of the Year.

But, something which evaded Modric was his own success, as he was nowhere near the Balon D’Or or UEFA Player of the Year lists. The first full season under Zidane in 2016/17 was one in which he proved himself to be a real workhorse, playing 53 games in all competitions that season and starting in 46 of them! He was the unrelenting machine for Madrid, who did the double of winning La Liga and Champions League that season and his amazing work finally attained him fifth place in the Balon d'Or rankings.

Modric also won the UEFA Best Player for 2017-18 ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo and Mohamed Salah

It was the 2017-18 season when Modric finally received the recognition he had deserved for years and after the departure of James Rodriguez to Bayern Munich, Los Blancos awarded him with the prestigious #10 shirt. This meant that he was now the main creative outlet of the team, with Casemiro and Toni Kroos’ presence behind him helping Modric operate more freely. Modric proved his worth as the #10, is extremely influential in creating chances on every game. He had a fantastic Champions League season, where he produced some sensational performances against the likes of Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich to help them progress to the final.

The Champions League final was one where Modric held complete control in midfield, as he gave a highly-energetic performance and was all over the field on the day. He made life difficult for the likes of Jordan Henderson and James Milner, who crumbled under pressure and Modric stopped the fluidity in Liverpool’s dangerous passing game. But, that high wasn’t enough for him, as he was out to take Croatia to new heights at the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Croatia went into the tournament as dark-horses and despite having a stellar squad like always, many predicted them to crumble under pressure in the knockout rounds. But, the Croats proved everyone wrong with some sensational performances, especially against Argentina in the group stages, where Modric worked his magic phenomenally. Not only did he score a belter of a goal, but he completely stopped Lionel Messi and Co from operating and was a relentless leader on the day.

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That game was crucial for Modric’s confidence, which grew leaps and bounds into the knockout rounds, where he put on some masterclass performances. Despite a penalty miss against Denmark, Modric came back to influence them to win the penalty shootout and progress to a semi-final bout against England. Against the Three Lions, despite being low on energy, Modric gave it his everything and poured his heart out to inspire Croatia to record a hard-fought victory.

In the showpiece though, he had just run out of steam due to the rigorous 120+ minute matches he had to play in the knockout rounds. Despite coming up short of creating history with his country, Modric's incredible work at the World Cup was rewarded when he was awarded the Golden Ball award.

That would be the start of a series of personal successes for him, as he amazingly beat Ronaldo to be named as UEFA's Best Player of the Year. The victory turned the tide and gave him an outside chance of winning FIFA's award. Despite being an underdog to win it, Modric created history by becoming the first footballer to break the Ronaldo-Messi domination which had stretched for over a decade.

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While the authenticity of Modric's victory was questioned by some, as he had only scored three goals and assisted two in all completions for Real Madrid, it had proven how FIFA had finally come out of its shell. The same association that had cruelly ignored Wesley Sneijder, Andres Iniesta, and Xavi's work in the past, has embraced the discreet brilliance of Modric.

The discreet Croatian’s success will be a pillar to shed a spotlight on those shy, simple midfielders who stray far away from mainstream attention due to their lack of “panache.” Modric’s recent achievement is a victory for every majestic player who has been ignored in recent years because of the Messis and Ronaldos of this world and his incredible work has allowed football to embrace simplicity once again.