Modric is already preparing the new course from his native Croatiawith the illusion of a child. A 37-year-old boy who this year is in his twelfth season in white and opens in the second step of the captaincy. The shadow of defeat in the Nations League final no longer hangs over the Croatian. The mourning is over and now he only looks ahead. On the horizon, a new season in ChamartÃn and a Euro Cup that in the summer of 2024 will play bordering on quarantine. He will be 38 years old on September 9, still with challenges ahead.
He always finds reasons to continue. And it is that his football supports him. Last season he participated in 52 gameswith a balance, in numerical terms, of six goals and another six assists. De Jong and Gündogan, to put it in context, played 43 and 51, respectively. But his contribution goes further. He continues inoculating clairvoyance to the medullary, despite his age, and aspires to continue doing so. For it, He is already training on his own, while enjoying his last week of vacation in Croatia. There she has been seen doing running exercises on the green.
Beyond football
Warm up engines for a new year in the elite. Neither the petrodollars nor the arrival at the Bernabéu of young promises every year diminish one iota the illusion of Zádar’s genius. It is competitiveness taken to its maximum expression. His house is in Madrid. In the capital he has created a life, and in the white team, a family. He is the father of a wardrobe that greatly celebrated its renewal and that he clings to his football and his experience to grow. Also the club, which finds in him, as in Kroos, the ideal teacher for the wave of promises that have recently landed in ChamartÃn. Some are already a reality (the case of Camavinga, Vinicius or a Rodrygo who calls him ‘dad’). Others, on the other hand, still lack sharpening. Players like Tchouaméni or Güler can now fill the bank with knowledge and experience to break it in a few years. Much is expected of them and the entity welcomes the fact that they share ‘every day’ with a seasoned footballer like the Croatian.
In the individual, Modric has the opportunity this season to enter the top-15 of players with the most appearances in the club’s history (currently it is 16th, with 488). He is 10 behind Chendo (498) and 39 behind Roberto Carlos (527), so if he enjoys the continuity he had last year, he will surpass them. But there is more. In the Eurocup season, the Croatian aspires to say goodbye to his team with a good taste in his mouth after the disappointment suffered in the Nations League against Spain. Challenges that continue to infuse it with oxygen and ambition. For them, he prepares as a child. A 37 year old boy. Full tank already for what he comes.