There isn’t much that Luka Modric hasn’t seen on a football field, and yet he celebrated Sunday’s derby win like he was a teenager.
As La Gazzetta dello Sport recall, the ‘maestro had the eyes of a child’. Modric, the 2018 Ballon d’Or winner, was a Milan fan in love. The win earlier in the season was one thing, but a ‘home’ derby with the stadium screaming for you is something else entirely.
What happened after the game
Modric left the pitch about ten minutes after his teammates because he first had to answer questions from DAZN. As soon as he finished with the reporters, he ran to the dressing room, as if the 10.839lm he ran on the pitch weren’t enough.
Off he went, full speed ahead to celebrate with the team and not miss the best moments. His teammates waited for him, and when they saw him enter the dressing room, they raised a chant: ‘Luka! Luka!’ And when does that ever happen?
It is a clear sign: Modric is considered by everyone to be a player apart, in a class all of his own. He’s won six Champions Leagues, the Ballon d’Or, and even at 40, he commands with intelligence and technique but also with his running, positioning and grit.
Modric never puts himself on a pedestal: he speaks to his team-mates as an equal, as he always has throughout his career. The beauty, for Milan, is that the affection is mutual. Modric experienced Real Madrid but has been a Milan fan since he was a child, and now has ‘fallen in love’ with his new club.
In this, there is a connection with Allegri. Modric, like Max, in recent months has understood how much the fans can push the team, on the pitch and also away because the Curva Sud – even in reduced numbers – makes itself heard in many stadiums.
In the next two months, Milan will travel to Rome to play Lazio, to Naples, to Verona, to Reggio Emilia to play Sassuolo and to Genoa. Without help from above (the visiting Curva) the dream of the Scudetto would evaporate.
