The captain of the Croatian national team and Milan midfielder, Luka Modric, was a guest on the show (Un)Success of the Champions with former national team coach Slaven Bilic.
The two footballers spent a lot of time together, and it was Bilic who brought Modric into the senior national team when he included him in the squad for Euro 2008 and handed him “the keys to the team.”
Modric also spoke about his transfer to Zrinjski Mostar during the show, emphasizing that he saw it as an opportunity to progress.
“Simple. As you said, many players lose their level when moving from junior to senior football. This happens because they don’t play at that age, they stay in their comfort zone, they’re not ready to take a step down in order to climb higher. When the opportunity came, I immediately wanted to go there. It was better for me because I was competing in senior football. Then another team is formed, you play with friends, you feel comfortable, but the question is how much progress you will make. They called the club and asked if I would go. Landeka and Djidic had already left… The rest is history. It was phenomenal for me. Now, from this perspective, it looks like a risky move, but I saw it as an opportunity to prove myself,” Modric said, highlighting how it helped him that Stjepan Deveric took over the Zrinjski bench after five rounds.
“He came after five rounds, even though it was good working with the previous coach. I remember the first day, after training, the match was the next day and the squad list came out. Everyone was reading the names, and I wasn’t on the list, but no one told me anything. Okay, I finished training, went to the shower and cried. I thought: ‘What is this, I came here to play.’ I cried in the shower and prayed to God that no one would see me. I went home, but they called me and told me that I wasn’t on the list because the documents hadn’t arrived yet. Then came the relief. We had a good season, we fought for survival, but in the end we finished mid-table. The league was quite tough, the opponents were aggressive, but that helped me as a young player to cope with senior football,” he added.
Let us remember that Modric was loaned to Zrinjski from Dinamo, and he also played for Inter Zapresic, Tottenham, Real Madrid and now Milan.
He has played 194 matches for the Croatian national team and scored 28 goals, and with the “Vatreni” he won the silver medal at the 2018 World Cup and the bronze medal in Qatar four years later.
