Luka ModricExiting the stage of the World Cup and, with it, also international football, did not become a beau idéal or a perfect 10, a number that he loved and charmingly created over the years. The end, however, was dramatic – and violent. Just as Croatia thought Josko Gvardiol’s late equalizer against Portugal was enough to stave off the inevitable, enter VAR with the usual plot twist to make it a cause célèbre. Modric, who looked steadfastly isolated from the chaos around him, his face showing a poignant resignation to fate, was gently wrapped in a warm embrace from. Cristiano Ronaldo. It was a moment of catharsis. Of the two middle men, Ronaldo: will now go deeper into the tournament, but Modric’s fifth bid for the biggest prize will remain elusive. “I played with Luka for many years. We are almost the same age. He is a football legend; he is still a football legend because he continues to play so well and with such good quality. It is unbelievable,” Ronaldo later announced his feelings to the world. The 40-year-old Croatian – often hailed as the greatest player from the small, proud Central European country – lifted the curtain on his World Cup career with one silver and one bronze medal, with the Golden Ball and the Bronze Ball to boot. The eternal thirst of a sportsperson for the completion of an effort usually comes with his perceived value and a reassuring order, but the judgment of Modric through this perspective is anything but a conventional valediction. Because compassion is never a requirement for creating excitement in his playing, because his football always crushes his life-affirming attitude. Here he is unique, perhaps offering a more humane concept of a sports hero. If Davor Suker – a goal machine excellence – represented a symbol of hope and happiness for a newly independent Croatia by helping them finish third in the 1998 World Cup, Modric extended that legacy, serving as a bridge between the country’s amazing arrival and its new identity in the 21st century as a football power. Modric himself was a child of Croatia’s struggle for independence, his early years he was a refugee moving from one place to another in search of survival. Fortunately, instead of picking up a weapon, he found calm in the midst of chaos in football. His football has since sought to restore order to chaos, and this has helped him rise above the mediocrity. In his captivating presence, in the beautiful flicks outside the boot or crosses, the beauty lives as something beyond beauty, like the backhand of Roger Federer – creates a mystery in how it transfers the defense to the attack, and attack to a winner before the opponents get it. Like every no. 10, he is a quintessential dreamer on the ball. Tottenham gave him the platform to announce his arrival, and it was at Real Madrid where he really found his dramatic stage to realize his dream, marrying his approach to an unwavering rhetoric of desire. It is not stereotypical, but a symphony of pure joy. His rise as the heartbeat of the Spanish club has coincided with Croatia’s most successful period in international football, finishing second at the 2018 World Cup and third four years ago in Qatar. In his last dance on the world stage, he may have fallen like an old king, but not before stunning the crowd. Football feels a little empty now, but Modric’s legacy will be long-lasting.