In December 1991, Serbian rebel forces killed Luka Modrić's grandfather — also named Luka — in the hamlet of Modrići, on the slopes of Velebit north of Zadar. The family fled. Young Luka, six years old, grew up in refugee housing: Hotel Kolovare, then Hotel Iz. Sometimes without running water. Sometimes without electricity. He learned football in the hotel parking lots, games broken up by artillery sirens.
That boy is 40 years old. On June 17, he will captain Croatia against England in Arlington, Texas, in his fifth FIFA World Cup.
The 2018 run
Croatia arrived at the 2018 World Cup in Russia as a decent side with no business in the final. They went to penalties against Denmark in the round of 16, to penalties against Russia in the quarterfinal, and then beat England 2-1 in extra time in the semifinal. A nation of four million — smaller than most of the cities hosting the 2026 tournament — was in the World Cup final.
They lost to France 4-2. It did not diminish anything.
Modrić won the Golden Ball as the tournament's best player. Later that year he won the Ballon d'Or, breaking over a decade of Messi and Ronaldo. The award was not for a single season. It was for a body of work that peaked at precisely the right moment.
2022 and the bronze
Four years later, at 37, Modrić led Croatia to another semifinal. They lost 3-0 to Messi's Argentina — the generation passing the baton was not subtle — and beat Morocco 2-1 in the third-place match. Modrić won the Bronze Ball. Two World Cup individual awards in consecutive tournaments, at 32 and 37.
The fifth World Cup
Modrić left Real Madrid after the 2024-25 season and moved to AC Milan. In April 2026, a collision with Manuel Locatelli in a match against Juventus fractured his cheekbone and ended his club season. He is expected to wear a protective mask at the tournament.
He is here anyway.
Five World Cups: 2006, 2014, 2018, 2022, 2026. Croatia failed to qualify in 2010 — the only gap. The next World Cup is in 2030, when Modrić would be 44. For all practical purposes, this is the end of the international road.
The draw
Croatia are in Group L: England, Croatia, Panama, Ghana. The opener — England in Arlington on June 17 — is a direct callback to the semifinal that defined the 2018 run. Eight years later, same opponent, different continent, different stakes, same captain.
Croatia are strong enough to advance. Our model has them among the clear top-two seeds in the group. But the probabilities are beside the point of this particular story.
The arc
There is a version of Modrić's career that fits neatly into the sports-movie template: refugee child overcomes adversity, reaches the pinnacle, walks off into the sunset. The reality is messier and more interesting. He was a refugee, and then he was a teenager in the Croatian football system, and then he was undersized and underestimated at Dinamo Zagreb, and then he was written off after a difficult first season at Tottenham, and then he was the best midfielder in the world for the better part of a decade.
The parking lot in Zadar is part of it. So are fifteen years of relentless midfield work at the highest level, in an era when midfielders who neither score nor sprint were supposed to be obsolete.
On June 17, against England, in front of whatever portion of Croatia's four million people can make it to Texas, the last chapter starts.