It is possible, more than certain, that if we looked, we knew, we investigated, they told us, stories, lives, of the 800 footballers who were present on the first day in Doha at the start of the Qatar World Cupwe would come to the conclusion that, with the exception of the bunch of select champions that were among the winning teams, we could say about many that football owes them a World Cup.
That that football owes you something is a phrase as hackneyed as the legendary, popular and well-worn sentence of the coach Vujadin Boskov about what “Football is football & rdquor;, pronounced, probably, as a justification for a defeat when he was on the Zaragoza bench, in 1979. Nobody owes anyone anything because, probably, having analyzed the situation (privileged, on the other hand) of those eight hundred footballers, football He will have already repaid each of them everything they gave him. Or more.
Leo’s World Cup
It goes without saying that this Tuesday (8:00 p.m.) and Wednesday, at the same time, the two semifinals will be decided and from them will come those teams and soccer players that soccer intends to reward, next Sunday, in the grand final. And today, with Argentina, in Argentina, before 48 million crazy, crazy, crazy fans, a team, albiceleste, led by Lionel Andres Messi to which everyone, everyone, even those who rule in football (he himself has said and repeated it several times Gianni InfantinoPresident of FIFA) believe, in effect, that football owes him not more than the recognition he has, because it is impossible, but rather an entire World Cup to himself.
And the question, hours before this uncertain Croatia-Argentina game, would be if football owes a World Cup to Messi, at 35, what does it owe to Luka modricat 37 years old, one of the footballers who has contributed the most, not only to the appearance of beauty on a pitch, not only to starring in and teaching the simplest and most effective football that exists, not only to the most spectacular victories of their teams, especially Real Madrid and Croatia, but to the exemplarity, image, behavior, lordship and goodness on a football field?
It has been told many times, yes, but it could, I don’t know, I say, perhaps, that this is a good moment, not because nobody wants, least of all me, that this debt be repaired (Modric is already happy with what he has and has achieved for his own), but we should remember the chilling, shocking, terrible childhood and youth that Modric lived through, a survivor with his family (or part of it), of the bloody War of the Balkans.
The day his grandfather was killed remained engraved in his mind to this day, and he even wrote a wonderful essay about it as a schoolboy.
“He went with his animals and always came back at the same time,” the good old Luka Modric, born in Zadar, recounted on a certain occasion in a school essay in relation to his grandfather. “But that day he didn’t show up. The animals returned alone. So they went looking for him, but I knew they weren’t going to find him.” Yes, they found him, yes, but riddled with bullets, one could say shot, 500 meters from his house. Luke was then 6 years old. And he never, ever, forgot that moment of such impact, which took him almost 30 years to remember, to verbalize it again.
Little Luka, who rebuilt himself with his family, is the one who today, as always, will jump onto the field leading, almost invisible and with suede boots, silent, but effective like few others, cerebral like none, a selection that, like all The Croatians, whether in basketball, handball or with their already characteristic water polo cap, will compete representing one of the smallest towns in the world, the most competitive on Earth and with the best athletes, whatever the discipline.
“I had a difficult path, but the important thing is not to give in. There were obstacles, there were ups and downs, but you always have to believe. Everything made me stronger”
Luka Modric / Croatia International
Contrary to what happens, yes, with Leo Messi, a lot of people have given Modric an expiration date in recent years. And he continues to work wonders. In the last Euro Cup, with a more than precious and impressive goal against Scotland, he became the oldest Croatian player to score in that tournament, at 35 years and 286 days. Curiously, as reflected, last week, the Argentine newspaper ‘La Nación’ already had the reverse record, that is, he had become the youngest to score a goal, at 22 years and 273 days, in a match against Austria .
That essay written at the age of 10 that the teacher not only praised but also kept like gold in cloth, recounted that “although I am small, I have been through a lot of fear in my life. The fear of war and bombers is something that I am gradually overcoming. The event and the feeling of dread that I will never forget occurred four years ago when the ‘chetniks’ (a name given to guerrillas belonging to a Serbian nationalist organization) killed my grandfather. I loved him so much. Everyone was crying and I didn’t understand why my dear grandfather wouldn’t come back anymore. He asked me if those who did that to him and those who made us flee our homes can even be called people & rdquor ;.
After that murder and with the war growing in the region, Luka’s family walked 60 kilometers through forests and mountains to take refuge in Zadar. Until staying at the Hotel Kolovare. “We lived four people in 20 square meters. I cannot say that my childhood was not happy, it was hard, but I remember it with joy. We were many children in that same situation and, luckily, in front of the hotel we had a field where we could play soccer and we did it continuously without thinking about what was happening around us& rdquor;.
Skimming the title
In his autobiography ‘My party’ (2020), Modric recounted that he took his children Ivano, 12, Ema, 9, and Sofía, 4, to the town where he grew up, although he preferred to omit some details of those harsh , painful and unpleasant days. “I just wanted them to meet him, to see the village where I grew up, but I didn’t tell them about what happened. In the future, there will be things that I do want to tell you, although it will never be the complete story.”
I’m not saying, by God!, that Leo Messi doesn’t deserve it, well, yes! A reward as tremendous as this World Cup, he has already touched, almost caressed with his fingertips, neither more nor less than Luka Modric, current runner-up in the world in Russia-2018. I say that the leader of the team that will face ‘Flea’ also represents a people eager to reach that same peak and, yes, as deserving of the summit as the passionate Argentine people, who already know what it is to enjoy that instant.
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“I had a difficult path,” Modric continues to recount when explaining his life, “but the important thing is not to give in. There were obstacles, there were ups and downs, but you always have to believe. The things that happened made me stronger. I can say that I am tough. When you go through what I’ve been through, it’s much easier to accept some things that happen in your life later on and, yes, we’re also talking about football, of course, where victories are mixed with defeats.”
Perhaps by knowing a little more about the contents of the backpack of hard memories, or a mixture of joy and tears, with which Luka Modric carries, we can understand why the Croatian star became the most praised player in the quarterfinals when , in the midst of the merriment and euphoria of his teammates, after eliminating Brazil, he calmly and conscientiously digested himself to console his very young teammate Rodrigo, from Real Madrid, devastated after missing a penalty (“you were brave when you took it, remember: this will make you a better footballer and you will come out of it stronger& rdquor;), to Neymar Júnior himself, who welcomed him in his arms, flooding the Croatian’s shoulder with tears, and, of course, to his friend Casemiro.