Croatia’s “little genius” Luka Modric will be in the limelight today as he and his countrymen go up against Germany in a match whose outcome will have a huge bearing on the outcome of Group B.
“I know I am going to be under close observation,” said the youngster, who next season will star in the English Premiership with Tottenham.
Coach Slaven Bilic expects nothing less of his star man than for him to step up to the plate and “be the best player of the tournament.”
“That’s not to put a burden on his shoulders but because it’s what I think, ” Bilic said.
Midfield partner Nico Kranjcar describes his team-mate as “the new superstar of Croatian football.”
At 22, Modric is the complete player. He is two-footed, has an innate sense of passing and has great speed of thought while his play is very precise and he can operate just behind the strikers or on the left.
A tough childhood appears to lie at the heart of his determination to succeed.
Croatia team-mate Vedran Corluka recounted how when Modric was a boy he grew up with his family as refugees following attacks by Serbian forces on his Dalmatian village of Zaton.
He was also toughened up by the fact that early in his career, having been loaned out from Dinamo Zagreb to Bosnian side Zrinjski Mostar, he was mercilessly targeted by tough Bosnian league defenders “as referees looked the other way. Anyone who survives in that league becomes a real player,” Bilic said.
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Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
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