War Child

One of the world’s best midfielders had a tough upbringing in war-torn Croatia.

- Nick Bidwell

Real Madrid and Croatia midfield ace Luka Modric is unlikely to ever be heard echoing the words of late, great Liverpool manager Bill Shankly about life, death and the importance of football.

As a child of the Croatian War of Independence his formative years were stained with suffering, and as a result he has always focused on the big picture – the world beyond the wealth, status and glittering prizes of his chosen profession.

While a competitor from head to toe, Modric is an individual of sound perspective; never being discouraged by failure or setback, always taking success in his stride.

Now in his fifth season in Spain, he has certainly enjoyed his time at the Bernabeu, where he is much appreciated for his scintillating approach play and where he has twice won the Champions League, in 2014 and 2016. Yet the 31-year-old also deserves the utmost respect for his humility and level-headedness.

When moving house in Madrid, he insisted on doing the removal work himself and he definitely did not show any delusions of grandeur when having a house built in his adopted hometown of Zadar on the Adriatic coast.

“People ask me why it’s only a mini-villa,” said Modric. “They want to know why it’s so small. There’s only four of us [wife Vanja, son Ivano and daughter Ema]. What are we supposed to do with the five or six rooms we don’t use?”

Brought up in the remote rural outpost of Modrici, a tiny hamlet on the slopes on the Velebit mountains in northern Dalmatia, his adolescence was the stuff of nightmares. As misfortune would have it, his home region was one of the epicentres of the war and barely a day went by without the sight, sound and smell of savagery.