The San Siro stadium, with its colossal concrete towers, is a monument to industrial brutalism and an era that is ending. The City Council of Milan has set a date for its demolition but the crowd of pilgrims fill it as if there were no tomorrow to see Milan and among all the players, one catches their attention. fans They almost unanimously consider the most special. It is not difficult to distinguish it on the grass. He is the smallest, measuring 1.70. It is the one that occupies the geographical center of the court, just like the hub of a wheel. He is the one who moves the least, the one who touches the ball the most times and the oldest of all.
Luka Modric is 40 years old and Italian fans look at him like a living relic, superstitious, like all football fans, in the face of the differential fact—who can win six Champions Leagues in a single sporting life? When in the 5th minute of the League match against Lazio last week, he caught a ball on the left wing of the attack and sent it against all the rules, recklessly, horizontally, low, across the width of the field, to his teammate Saelemaekers, what usually happens in these cases happened and an opponent, named Zaccagni, intercepted the pass and it went like a shot towards the Milan goal. The public remained suspended while Saelemaekers reacted as if the mistake had been his – had he disappointed the myth? – and ran like a devil after Zaccagni until cutting off his path and forcing him to brake. The essential delay so that Modric could retreat at full speed and chase Zaccagni to the edge of the Milan area, strip him of the ball and start playing again as if nothing had happened. Far from inspiring suspicion, they applauded him.
Errors are not charged as before in the soccer. Serie A – led today by Inter ahead of a Milan with one game less that plays tonight in Torino (20.45, Dazn) to regain first place – is no longer the most stressful tournament in the football industry, the competition that drove Gascoigne and Maradona crazy, exhausted Baggio, depressed Socrates and broke Van Basten and Ronaldo Nazario. Italy has established itself as the oldest country in the European Union with an average population of 49 years of age and Modric has found there his natural sphere of expression to a public that identifies with everything that his serene and calm solvency represents. It is no coincidence that this grandson of Croatian shepherds who as a child had to take refuge from the Balkan war repudiates tattoos and video games, signs of corporate identity of his colleagues of the new generations, nor that he approaches the problems of his profession with a look that seems to his coach, Massimiliano Allegri, to be a vestige of antiquity.
“Modric is something that is not seen anymore in football,” says the Milan coach. “He is a phenomenon because he does things that others don’t do and sees things that others don’t see. You can copy many things from him but what makes him unique is his excessive talent.” Allegri speaks with genuine admiration. Far from using Modric as a luxury resource for specific situations, the coach has accommodated him in the position corresponding to the helmsman’s bridge. Since Modric signed for Milan from Madrid last summer, his relevance in the team has increased. If age is a condition that prevents the Croatian from making runs with the energy that the game demands from midfielders at the highest demands, Allegri does not take notice. Modric has license to catch his breath walking, to risk and lose unforgivable balls to other professionals, or to let himself go in defensive transitions. In case of emergency, your colleagues are there to help you. It is the kind of organization that Allegri has in an ecosystem that is favorable. Unlike Ligue 1, the Bundesliga or the Premier, Serie A, like the Spanish League, is still generous with teams that press little and prefer to speculate. Midfielders who take refuge between their centre-backs, as Modric does, have much more space to think after receiving the ball.
The Lazio that visited San Siro a week ago was an example of this sweet resistance. Rarely did their attackers stretch into the opposite half to pursue Milan’s defenders and midfielders man to man. Guendouzi went for Bartesaghi, Isaksen for Pavloic, Zacaggni for Tomori, and Dia for Gabbia… and for Modric. In the four-on-five duel, one Milan player was always free to serve the ball. If Modric was not the lucky one and found himself under pressure, he promptly had two first-class escorts to offer to get out of the encirclement. Rabiot and Fofana have orders to go down to support the Croatian. In defense as well as in attack. Allegri sends it in the conviction that taking care of Modric’s exceptionalism is profitable. In exchange for saving energy in his legs, he has to use his brain to manage the ball piecemeal.
The result manifests itself in a type of overflowing productivity that is related to the most refined part of decision making. Modric is the player who has given the most passes in Serie A this season. According to Opta, 883. His interventions have multiplied: 1,084 touches of the ball, more than anyone else in the League, including two assists and a goal.
Simplification is the central idea of this Milan made for Modric. Laconic in his operation and naturally inclined to settle in his field, he is armed with five defenders and waits for his director to set the times to go on the counterattack with the powerful Leao, in the same way he did in Madrid with Benzema, Vinicius or Mbappé. “It is paradoxical but it is true,” says Fabio Capello in La Gazzetta dello Sportwhen asked if Milan are more comfortable when the opponent gets the ball. “Let’s not forget that Allegri does not have a very rich squad and therefore does not have an infinite number of solutions to vary the plan.”
Milan’s first solution is Luka Modric, whose contract ends in June 2026, but who knows. So many times he was finished and so many times he found a loophole to remain valid, that only he seems to be the owner of the formula. “It’s just love for football. I really love football!” he says. “And if you really love him you have to be a nonconformist. It doesn’t matter how big you think you are. You have to push yourself a little more.”
