How Modric and Croatia continue to defy the odds

Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Luka Modric made his Croatia debut in 2006 and has won 198 caps The small, skinny, teenage midfielder was very protective of his flowing locks. But the attention spent on his hair was becoming a problem for the coach. "I was freaking out," smiles Romeo Jozak. "Of course, I didn't know he was going to become the Luka Modric down the road. "Any pass he was going to do, it was [flick of the hair]. We even had a couple of fights. Well, I was the coach and I had the last word, so he eventually cut that hair!" Modric, Croatia's most successful ever footballer, has since regrown those locks and that small, skinny frame has carried him to six Champions League titles with Real Madrid and a Ballon d'Or. He captained Croatia to a World Cup final in 2018, third place four years ago and, aged 40, will lead his side into their 2026 opener against England on Wednesday (21:00 BST). Modric and Jozak, who has played a key role in the development of the nation's top talent, can laugh about their early exchanges now. "He did say 'do you know you and the army [Modric spent a year doing national service] are the only ones that cut my hair'," says Jozak. "There's a respect and I feel it whenever we see each other, even though he's now the superstar." Modric's rise to such superstar status - from a child displaced by war to a national icon approaching 200 caps for Croatia - is an underdog story synonymous with a country that continuously defies the footballing odds. Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Modric played 130 games for Dinamo Zagreb before joining Spurs in 2008 Modric's childhood was shaped by war. He is one of the few players in the current squad who lived through a conflict that ran until 1995 after Croatia declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1991. He was six when his grandfather, Luka, was killed by Serbian forces close to his home near the Velebit mountains, where he would herd goats. The family home was burned and Modric's father went to war. The youngster was forced to move to Zadar with his family, living as refugees in hotels where he would play football with other children displaced by the fighting. The Croatia national team, meanwhile, were admitted by Fifa in 1992, then Uefa in 1993, meaning they missed out on qualification for the 1994 World Cup. But stars such as Zvonimir Boban, Davor Suker and Robert Prosinecki, who all previously represented a strong Yugoslavia side, reached the quarter-finals at Euro 96 and finished third at the World Cup in France two years later, beating Germany and the Netherlands. The conflict, Jozak says, played a role in the players' drive and character, but there was, and remains, pride in representing a country of less than four million people and a confirmation in their ability from outperforming bigger nations. "We don't use it as a motivation per se, because that motivation is built within the players," says Jozak. "[But] some had relatives killed in the war and those things stay inside of you. You take it out of your genes and use it when you need it the most. "Pride initially came from the country, from the patriotic things that we've had in the past regarding the war. "Yes, we're a small country, but lately with the results we've had and even we have with the youth, it is not only pride, it's self-confidence." Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Davor Suker won the Golden Boot at the 1998 World Cup as Croatia finished third It would, however, take 20 years for Croatia to emerge from the group stage of a World Cup again, bettering the original golden generation by reaching the final in Russia in 2018. But the seeds had long been planted. Jozak, whose own professional career was cut short by injuries, held a number of coaching roles with Dinamo Zagreb's youth teams before at various stages becoming the club's academy director, sports director and most notably technical director of the Croatian Football Federation (CFF). He was still a young coach leading Dinamo's second team when Modric joined as a 16-year-old from Zadar, having been overlooked by Hajduk Split. "He was always a good guy, well-educated, humble," explains Jozak. "He wasn't a doubt, because we always saw something in him. "But you couldn't say 'Listen, he's going to be a superstar', because he was short and skinny and how are you going to say this guy is going to be dominating the world, right? "He was always reliable in the way that you can put him on the team, he's not going to lose the ball where he's not supposed to lose it. He's always going to fight, he's always going to run, he's going to deliver. "But he wasn't even in the top three prospects at that time." The young midfielder, obsessed with his hair, was sent on loan to Zrinjski Mostar of the Bosnian Premier League to earn first-team exposure, before spending a season in Croatia with Inter Zapresic. "Football is very unpredictable, personality-wise," says Jozak. "His pe

How Modric and Croatia continue to defy the odds

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