Croatia captain Luka Modric, who left Real Madrid after 13 years at the La Liga club, has completed his move to AC Milan on a one-year deal with an option to extend until June 2027, the Serie A side said on Monday.
The midfielder’s arrival was confirmed by new AC Milan head coach Massimiliano Allegri earlier this month.
“Very happy to be here to start a new chapter in my career,” said Modric, who turns 40 in September, in an Instagram video shared by AC Milan.
Photo: AFP
AC Milan said that Modric would wear the No. 14 shirt, which he previously wore during his four years at English side Tottenham Hotspur to honor Dutch great Johan Cruyff.
“It’s an immense honor for them to compare me to [Cruyff]... I wore the No. 14 at Tottenham in honor of him, and because the No. 10 wasn’t available,” Modric had said after winning the Ballon d’Or in 2018.
Modric, regarded as one of the greatest midfielders of all time, announced in May that he would leave Real Madrid after the FIFA Club World Cup. He has made 597 appearances for the Spanish club, winning 28 trophies, including four La Liga and six UEFA Champions League titles.
He played his last game for Real Madrid on Wednesday last week, coming on as a second-half substitute during a 4-0 loss to Paris Saint-Germain in the Club World Cup semi-finals.
“It’s a bitter end ... he’s a legend of world football and of Real Madrid. He’ll be remembered for many more good things than for the 25 minutes he played today,” Real Madrid head coach Xabi Alonso said after the match.
Modric, considered Croatia’s greatest player of all time, has represented the country a record 188 times, scoring 28 goals. He won the Golden Ball at FIFA World Cup 2018, where he led Croatia to the final for the first time.
He won the Ballon d’Or in December that year, becoming the first player other than Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo to win the prestigious annual award since 2007.
Modric’s arrival reinforces an AC Milan midfield that also features Youssouf Fofana, Yunus Musah and Ruben Loftus-Cheek, with Samuele Ricci joining from Torino earlier this month.
AC Milan, who failed to qualify for a European competition after finishing eighth in the Italian top-flight last season, begin their Serie A campaign against promoted US Cremonese on Aug. 23.
TO THE TOP: After securing the international title on Saturday, Team Taiwan were to face Las Vegas to potentially win their 18th Little League World Series championship A team from Taipei’s Dong Yuan Elementary School won the Little League Baseball World Series’ international title on Saturday by defeating Aruba 1-0 in the annual baseball tournament held in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The Taiwan team, competing under the name Chinese Taipei, were after press time last night to face a team from Las Vegas, Nevada, which beat a team from Fairfield, Connecticut, in the US championship 8-2. Taiwan are seeking to win their first Little League Baseball World Series title since 1996. “Really haven’t taken a moment to data dump right now on Taiwan,” Nevada manager T.J. Fescher said. “They’re a
Marc Marquez continued his winning streak as he cruised to victory in the Hungarian GP sprint by two seconds on Saturday night to pad his championship lead. It was a seventh straight Sprint victory for the Spaniard, who has also won the last six longer Sunday grand prix races on his factory Ducati. Fabio Di Giannantonio, an Italian with the VR46 Ducati satellite team was a distant second at Balaton Park, followed by his team-mate and compatriot Franco Morbidelli third. Marquez, a six-time world champion, started the race from pole position. “I felt someone really close on the first corner, from there I
Former European champions Celtic exited the UEFA Champions League in the qualifiers after a 3-2 penalty shoot-out defeat at Kazakhstan’s Kairat Almaty on Tuesday, following two goalless legs in the playoff tie. Kairat are to compete in the competition proper for the first time, while Norway’s Bodo/Glimt and Cyprus’s Pafos also secured debut appearances after coming through the playoffs. Celtic’s night ended in disappointment as they missed three penalties in the shoot-out, Daizen Maeda failing with the decisive spot-kick. The slugfest of a match went into extra-time with neither side finding the net and few overall chances, echoing the first
Russian Diana Shnaider continued her impressive winning streak in tour-level finals at the Monterrey Open on Saturday, beating compatriot Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 in the WTA 500 event’s final. Shnaider had little trouble in the opening set but struggled in a topsy-turvy second, as Alexandrova clinched the set’s fifth and decisive break at 5-4 to force a decider. Third-seed Shnaider carved out an advantage early on in the third set when she broke Alexandrova in the first game and held serve to go 2-0 up, an advantage she would not relinquish. World No. 12 Shnaider is now unbeaten in her last five