Golden Ball of the Russia World Cup
Luka Modric is the golden ball winner in this edition of the World Cup. A true example of leadership and fellowship.
FIFA recognizes at each football World Cup which of all the participating players has stood out above the rest and has performed the best competition. Winning the award does not depend on whether the team in which the player participates wins the World Cup or not, Luka Modric, golden ball of the 2018 Russia World Cup, shows that one can be the best thanks to his perseverance and fellowship.
Golden Ball Russia 2018
The golden ball is an award given by the FIFA Technical Committee made up of 5 members who cast their votes subjectively, valuing the play, technique, fellowship, or leadership work among other qualities of the footballers participating in the tournament.
During this World Cup, Croatia was the surprise, as it managed to reach the final without initially being favored. Despite the defeat in the final against France by 4 to 2, the committee wanted to reward the work of Croatian midfielder Luka Modric. The body made up of Marco Van Basten, Carlos Alberto Parreira, Bora Milutinovic, Emanuel Amunike, and Andy Roxburgh unanimously agreed on the verdict, surpassing two competitors who had also performed very strongly in the World Cup.
The silver ball went to Belgian player Eden Hazard and the bronze to the French national team player Antoine Griezmann. In their deliberation, the committee members highly valued the good performances of the Croatian midfielder and the work he did as team captain for his country's national team.
With this award, Modric joins other stars who have won the Golden Ball since the 1980s in a World Cup. This list includes Leo Messi in the Brazil World Cup, Forlán in South Africa, Zidane in Germany, Kahn in Japan and Korea, Ronaldo in France, Romário in the United States, Schillaci in Italy, Maradona in Mexico, and Rossi in Spain.
In the previous World Cup, the reception of the award by Leo Messi was also bittersweet for the player, since like Modric, the Argentine national team fell just short of winning the World Cup.
Among his achievements in this Russia edition, it stands out that he was the player who played the most matches, a total of 12 games. At 32 years old, this may be his last World Cup, so this award marks a turning point in his professional career.
A child of the war
Luka Modric is one of the so-called War Children; the conflict in Croatia caught him very young. At only 5 years old (1991), he was forced to flee with his parents from the village where they lived to take shelter in a hotel in the city of Zadar.
To escape the confinement and the terrors of war, he used to play football with other children his age. The hotel workers soon noticed the boy’s brilliance, and at 8 years old he was already playing for MK Zadar. At 16, he was signed by Dinamo Zagreb and began his career as a professional footballer.
Before turning 18, he was already recognized as the best player in the Bosnian league. His passport to the forefront of football was his signing with Tottenham in 2008. During this stage, he won 3 leagues and 2 Croatian Cups.
Since 2012, he has played for Real Madrid as a midfielder and has won 4 Champions Leagues, 3 European Super Cups, 3 Club World Cups, 1 League, 1 King’s Cup, and 2 Spanish Super Cups in the last 6 years. Now he must add to his record the golden ball obtained in this World Cup.
