B orn 9 th September 1985 in the Za- dar hospital, he grew up in a near- by hamlet that’s named after his family. There, right next to the vil- lage of Zaton Obrovački, he initially didn’t spend time with a football, but rather took care of goats on the Velebit mountain range, often running to the top. However, that far from safe job – and they say that there were more wolves back then than there are today – was replaced by even more dangerous days. The bloody collapse of Yugoslavia led to many people becoming refugees, and the Modrić family was no exception. Luka’s parents, Radojka and Stipe, took the then six-year-old boy to the nearby town of Za- dar, where he attended school and felt the charms of football for the first time, which he began to practise. Despite being short and having a slight build, he dealt with his peers relatively easily, so he was permitted to play with older boys. Accepting this as a specific challenge, he played even better. With his playing style as a youngster proving literally thrilling to behold, he was invited for a trial at Hajduk Split. “Dream of Dreams!”, thought the young Modrić as he set out for split with his friend and teammate from the Zadar club, Mario Grgurević. They were both full-blooded“‘ajduk”supporters. But they only kept hold of Mario, who they considered talented. Luka returned to Zadar. “Physically weak and small”, they’d said. The written-off boy was downhearted. Grgure- vić remained at Hajduk and today plays for Croatian third division club Primorac from Biograd. As for his unwanted friend... Modrić had wanted to give it all up. If he wasn’t good enough for his own belov- ed club, who would he be good enough for? However, Tomislav Bašić - his then coach, or perhaps a more apt title would be ‘foot- ball father’– still believed in this diminutive 15-year-old from Velebit. He took him for a trial at Dinamo Zagreb. They didn’t want to hear about him. “Just look how tiny he is!” They said.“It’s physically impossible for him to be able to deal with others,”they insisted. Bašić just asked them to let him try out, and they agreed. And then they signed him up. However, as soon as he became eligible for senior competition they loaned him out to play for Zrinjski Mostar, to toughen him up in the Bosnia-Herzegovina league. And he dreamed of great matches... But it wasn’t as though there weren’t great matches for the team from Mostar. Ac- tually, it was Luka who made matches great. As an 18-year-old, he dueled successfully with two powerful defenders from Saraje- vo, bringing his team an advantage of 2:0 in the fight for the title (the match ended 2:1) and securing the league title for Zrin-
R ođen je 9. septembra 1985. u zadarskoj bolnici, a živeo je u obližnjem zaseoku, ko- ji nosi ime po familiji kojoj pripada. Tu, tik pokraj Zatona Obro- vačkog, nije se najpre družio sa lop- tom, već je na planini Velebit čuvao koze, trčeći često ka vrhu. Međutim, taj ne baš bezopasni posao, a kažu da je vukova u to vreme bilo nešto vi- še nego danas, zamenili su još opa- sniji dani. Krvavi raspad Jugoslavije učinio je da mnogi postanu izbeglice, pa ta- ko i porodica Modrić. Lukini rodite- lji, Radojka i Stipe, poveli su šesto- godišnjeg mališana u obližnji Zadar, gde je pošao u školu i prvi put ose- tio čari fudbala, koji je počeo da tre- nira. Iako sitan i krhke građe, izlazio je relativno lako na kraj sa vršnjaci- ma, pa su ga pustili da igra i sa sta- rijima. Shvativši to kao naročit iza- zov, bio je još bolji. Pošto su njegove klinačke igra- rije bukvalno oduševljavale, pozvan je na probu u Hajduk. „San snova!“, pomislio je mali Modrić kada je sa Mariom Grgurevićem, drugarom iz zadarskog kluba, krenuo put Splita. Obojica su navijal „za Ajduka“ svim srcem. Ali samo su Marija zadržali, smatrali su ga talentovanim. Luku su vratili u Zadar. Fizički je slab, mali je – rekli su. Otpisani dečak bio je skrhan. Grgure- vić je ostao u Hajduku, sada je član trećeligaša Primorca iz Biograda. A njegov otpisani drugar... Modrić je hteo da digne ruke od svega. Ako nije dovoljno dobar za vo- ljeni klub, kome će pa biti dovoljan? Ipak, Tomislav Bašić, njegov tadašnji trener, fudbalski otac bi možda bilo preciznije reći, i dalje je verovao u ovog sićušnog 15-godišnjaka sa Ve- lebita. Odveo ga je na probu u Di- namo. Nisu hteli ni da čuju. Pa, vidi kolicki je – govorili su mu. Fizički je nemoguće da se nosi sa drugima – tvrdili su. Bašić ih je samo zamolio da probaju. I učinili su to. A onda ga i angažovali. Ipak, čim je postao punoletan, poslali su ga da igra u Zrinjski. Da se kali u li- gi Bosne i Hercegovine. A sanjao je velike mečeve... Pa opet, nije da ih nije bilo za ekipu iz Mostara. Zapravo, Luka je utakmice učinio takvim. Kao 18-go- Tekst / Words: Darko Nikolić Fotografije / Photography: Profimedia.rs
dišnjak je u borbi za titulu izdržao duele sa dva snažna čuvara iz Sara- jeva, doneo nedostižnih 2:0 (meč je završen rezultatom 2:1) i obezbedio titulu Zrinjskom. Proglašen je za naj- boljeg igrača lige, tako mlad i krhke građe, a godinama kasnije uz osmeh bi umeo da kaže: „Ko je igrao BiH li- gu, može da igra bilo koju na svetu.“ Nadobijao se fudbalskih batina onako sićušan, a prodoran, ali udarci nisu prestali ni kada je ponovo pro- menio sredinu. Kada bi otpisani kli- nac počeo da juri za loptom i snovima, samo su tako mogli da ga zaustave. Maestralan je bio i kada se vratio u Dinamo, a klub ga poslao na novu pozajmicu, u Inter iz Zaprešića. To- liko je bio dobar da je Inter na kraju prvog dela sezone bio prvi, ispred slavnih Zagrepčana i Splićana. Od- mah su ga modri iz hrvatske presto- nice vratili sa pozajmice, ali ne da bi igrao za njih, već da ne bi igrao za ri- vala. Prikovan za klupu, nije dobijao šansu. Treneri su se menjali, a tek pe- ti, Josip Kuže, shvatio je kakav dra- gulj ima među rezervama. Šalje ga na teren i tada sve postaje – pesma. Modrić je sa Dinamom osvojio tri titule, dva kupa i Superkup Hr- vatske. Za čak 18,8 miliona evra pro-
Oženio se Vanjom, s kojom ima troje dece – sina Ivana (8) i ćerke Emu (5) i Sofiju (2) He married Vanja, with whom he has three children: son Ivan (8) and daughters Ema (5) and Sofia (2)
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