Fireproof Modric

Luka Modric has no end. The Croatian midfielder turns 35 today, on the verge of starting what will be his ninth season wearing the Madrid shirt (total 343 games), a campaign in which he aims to be one of the main protagonists. Zidane does not look at Modric's DNI and the player himself does not do so either: He comes from signing his highest scoring season since landing in the capital.

Modric closed the 2019-20 season with five goals, some of them weighty as against Real Sociedad at the Bernabéu, in the League, or against Valencia in the semifinals of the Spanish Super Cup. held in Saudi Arabia. Despite his good medium-distance shot and constant presence on the front, Modric had not been distinguishing himself in Madrid as a great scorer: he had barely reached four goals in the previous two seasons.

Modric, goal and assist

The disastrous 2018-19 season left several victims, Modric among them, but the Croatian rebelled with goals, to which he also added eight assists, his second best mark in Madrid, only surpassed by the nine he distributed in 2013-14, the year in which La Décima was lifted. And that last season showed the start of the relay: it was the sports year in which he played fewer minutes in white (2,628 '), except for 2014-15 in which he barely played 2,002' due to two long-term injuries that they made him miss the central and final sections of the course.

When he was healthy, Ancelotti tugged at him. With Zidane he had always exceeded 3,000 minutes, but in 2019-20 the Marseillais saw in the rise of Fede Valverde the perfect opportunity to dose Modric and get the best of him at the right moments. He was important in the achievement of the league title (eight starts in the last eleven days), although Madrid showed that they can stay afloat without him: He did not start in the two Classics and in one of the three derbies played.

Far from showing signs of exhaustion, Modric finished the 2019-20 full force and in the same way he has started the 2020-21 preseason, in which he gave up playing with Croatia two games in the League of Nations (against Portugal and France) to stay working in Valdebebas under Zidane. At just 35 years old, the Zadar genius has prioritized Madrid, aware that his moment with his team will come later, at the Eurocup next summer and the World Cup in Qatar 2022.

Modric's future

As for the future of Modric, there is nothing written. Neither one way nor the other. The Croatian finished his contract in June 2020, but the achievement of the Ballon d'Or in January 2019, after his brilliant time at the 2018 World Cup in Russia, activated a clause by which his relationship was extended for another year, until 2021. In August 2018, Inter Milan tried to take him away for free, appealing to Madrid to give him the letter of freedom in gratitude for the accumulated merits.

Florentino Pérez, in person, stopped that attempt and confirmed with Modric that their paths would be even, at least, until the Croatian was almost 36 years old. When this season ends, the possibility of an extension will be studied if all parties so wish. Modric knows that he has the approval of Zidane and the blessing of the president, who signed him in the summer of 2012 after a tense negotiation with Tottenham to fulfill the wish of the then coach, José Mourinho. Eight years and 17 titles later, Modric still stands with his 35 summers on his back.