Luka Modric reclaims his status as Ballon d'Or favourite in Croatia's win

Aditya Devavrat 20:07 16/11/2018
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  • Luka Modric was back to his best on Thursday night.

    On Thursday, four months to the day since Luka Modric earned the biggest individual accolade of his career, he reminded everyone why he’d won it.

    The Croatia midfielder was left in tears on July 15, as his country lost the World Cup final to France, but his performance on the day and in the six matches that preceded it saw Modric end the tournament with the Golden Ball award.

    Croatia were expected to struggle to make it out of a group that contained Argentina, Nigeria, and Iceland, not make a run to the final and earn an unlikely shot at winning football’s biggest trophy. Modric’s form was a big reason for that.

    And then, suddenly, it dropped.

    While his World Cup performance was still drawing rave reviews, and highlighting the brilliant club season he’d had before the tournament in helping Real Madrid to an unprecedented third straight Champions League title, when he returned to Madrid, some of the magic seemed to be gone.

    Even as he would go on to be named UEFA’s and FIFA’s player of the year, Modric looked a shell of the player he’d been just months previously, and his team were suffering.

    It wasn’t hard to see the correlation, even if other Madrid stars were equally guilty of underperforming. And perhaps it was inevitable, after the gruelling season he’d just endured.

    The low point actually came in national team colours, as Modric was powerless to prevent Croatia from falling to a stunning 6-0 defeat to a Spain team that contained many of his club teammates.

    Since then, his club continued to lurch into crisis, with a run of one win in seven games seeing manager Julen Lopetegui, a man whose possession-based style should have suited Modric, out of a job.

    But finally, the real Modric has returned, and just in time.

    While his form from the last year, and the momentum generated by his award wins, made him favourite for the Ballon d’Or, he was in danger of losing that status.

    Cristiano Ronaldo, whose goals grabbed the headlines during Madrid’s Champions League triumph, found his feet at new club Juventus.

    Kylian Mbappe has continued to scale new heights, starring for Paris Saint-Germain after lifting the World Cup trophy even as Modric watched on forlornly in July, and winning the tournament’s Best Young Player award for good measure.

    And there is renewed appreciation for Lionel Messi, who has frankly been shortchanged in voting for the FIFA and UEFA awards largely because his brilliance has become routine.

    On Thursday night, though, Modric re-established his claim. He was instrumental in Croatia gaining revenge for their humiliating loss to Spain, as the World Cup finalists prevailed 3-2 at home in the return fixture.

    Modric had more touches than any other Croatia player, 66, and even that number is high given his side only had 33% of the possession. He assisted his side’s second goal. More importantly, whenever Croatia were on the ball, he bossed proceedings in midfield.

    It was Modric’s best performance since the World Cup, and it came at the perfect time. Apart from putting Croatia on the path to potentially topping their UEFA Nations League group – they simply need to beat England on Sunday – it should give the player some momentum after a difficult start to the season.

    And if his own improvement helps Real Madrid continue the revival that they’ve experienced under new manager Santiago Solari, who’s won his first four games in charge, all the better.

    Despite their poor start to the league season, including a 5-1 thrashing at the hands of La Liga leaders Barcelona, Madrid are only four points off the top, and they should still comfortably qualify as group winners in the Champions League.

    A trophy push on all fronts is still on.

    More importantly, so is the clean sweep of awards. World Cup Golden Ball, UEFA Men’s Player of the Year, FIFA’s The Best Men’s Player of the Year, and now, with his form back, the Ballon d’or is still his to lose.

    As always, Modric has arrived at the perfect time.

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