Real Madrid is preparing to experience a very special and emotional final stretch of the Club World Cup because after the next three matches -hopefully three- Luka Modric will say ‘goodbye’ forever to the club in which he has forged himself as the great footballer and leader he is. The captain already said goodbye to the Santiago Bernabéu more than a month ago, at the end of the League on May 24, and it will be in the United States when that departure from the team in which he has also become a legend of the king sport takes place.
About to turn 40, Modric is going to close a stage in his professional career that is difficult to surpass. Because the crack from Zadar is, with 28 titles, the most decorated player in the history of Madrid, he has won everything and even his class had the prize he needed, winning the Ballon d’Or in 2018. He was the first footballer to put a stop to the fight between Cristiano Ronaldo and Leo Messi in the ‘France Football’ award. Karim Benzema, another Madrid player, would follow in the footsteps of the ’10’ and would be proclaimed as the best footballer in the world in 2022.
Modric’s departure closes an all-powerful cycle in the center of the Madrid field, which had to assume Toni Kroos’ departure last summer. Together with Casemiro, both the Croatian and the German have formed one of the best midfields in the history of the merengue club and Luka and Toni will retire with six European Cups, something that until recently was only within reach of another historic Madrid player, the great Paco Gento. The current captain of the team, however, will not hang up his boots, unlike Kroos, and will sign for Milan, fulfilling his dream of playing in the World Cup next year with his native Croatia.
Luka’s departure opens a bleak scenario in Madrid, which already noticed the impact of Kroos’ absence throughout this season. Without Modric, Xabi Alonso loses the last great player of the team, in addition to hierarchy and an example of professionalism and commitment to the group. For that reason, the coach would have requested the club to sign a midfielder with a marked creative profile, with organizational skills and good ball handling, something that only Arda Güler can match. It remains to be seen if also Jude Bellingham, of whom Alonso said in his presentation that he was a “midfielder”.
Vitinha is the chosen one
Madrid could have chosen Vitinha as a potential replacement for Modric at the head of the team. Something that JoaquÃn Maroto recently acknowledged on Rubén MartÃn’s Twitch channel, but the deputy director of the newspaper also gave clues about all the possibilities that Florentino Pérez has. “Real Madrid will be attentive to the market until August 31, and to the opportunities that the market offers,” insisted the journalist, who stressed that numerous footballers are surprising during this World Cup.
As ‘Abc’ advanced weeks ago, Maroto has recalled that the midfielder that is most liked at the Santiago Bernabéu is Vitinha, pointing out at the same time the inconveniences that there are with PSG for a possible signing. “Vitinha is the best, but we already know how difficult it is to get a player out of Paris. You have to wait for his contract to end, convince him and wait for him for years, as happened with Kylian Mbappé, and that is very difficult. He has a contract until 2029 with PSG,” explained the Prisa professional.
