The legend of Modric does not stop growing

Luka modric he returned to play the 90 minutes against Inter. Like in San sebastin, as in all the matches of the second round of the Champions. With the captain’s armband for the first time since the start, the Croatian offered another soccer lesson against Inter, the team that tried everything in the summer of 2018 to win the best player in the world. Russia World Cup.

It is not news that the Croatian’s talent is one of Madrid’s best weapons. It is the magic of that trio of midfielders in which Luka puts the magic, Casemiro control and physical and Kroos a perfect mix of the two.

Modric is already a Real Madrid legend, possibly the best midfielder to ever wear the white jersey. Its impact on white history is evident. And it does not stop. Never before has a 36-year-old midfielder had so much weight in the white team. In a position where the demand is triggered and in which it is very strange to see veterans perform at a medium-high level, Modric it keeps the bar for its game much closer to its best version than it does to the feeling that it is wearing thin.

When one goes through the history of the white team, one does not find a similar case, a midfield player that he would reach 36 years of age with the controls of the team in his power. The first one that appears in time when looking for something similar is Jos Mara Pea. The Vizcano from Guecho came to play for Madrid at the age of 36, but in that season, the 31-32 and last of his at the club he arrived in 1926, he only played four games. For the Hungarian Lippo hertzka It was no longer an essential piece, as it had been in the previous campaign. His last game with Madrid (17-1-1932, 3-2 at Real Union) he played at the age of 36 and nine months.

Another Basque, Ipia, played with more than 36 years in the center of the white field. Came to the team after the Civil war and hung up his boots on March 6, 1949 (3-1 loss at Balados). He was 36 years, six months, and 12 days old. But then he was no longer the starter in the team he trained Alexander Keeping.

The legend of the bench

The crusher of players that is the center of the field did not admit such a veteran player to Madrid until Miguel Muoz. The one who would later become the best coach in the history of Madrid (14 titles to 11 for Zidane), played for the last time in white on March 16, 1958. It was the European Cup and a defeat in Budapest before Vassas. It was only Muoz’s sixth game that season and he was 36 years old and one month old. His best time in Madrid’s midfield had passed and greater tasks awaited him.

At the controls of Muoz debut Pirri with Madrid. It was the ye-y team, the Sixth team. His career in Madrid lasted until 1980. He made his debut against Bara at 19 years old and entered for Puskas (4-1 in Chamartn on November 8, 1964) and fired in the historic Cup final against him. Castile (6-1 on June 4, 1980). Pirri lifted the trophy at 35 years, two months and 19 days. He was fired as the starter. That season, with Boskov on the bench, he played 36 games, although it was already more lbero than a piece of a midfield that the headlines were Del Bosque, Angel and Stielike.

Now, Modric (36 years old and already almost three months) manages Madrid without anyone remembering to see him play his age. The first, l. “I feel very good. I think you don’t have to look at the years, you have to look at what you do on the field and the years are less and less noticeable because the races are getting longer. I feel very good and I feel like I’m under 30.” , He assured after finishing the match against Inter.

The Croat will not be the oldest to play with the Madrid, something that corresponds to Puskas (39 years and 36 days). Then the Hungarian was only playing almost as tributes to his legend. Not so Di Stfano, who left at 37 years and 328 days, the day Madrid lost the final of the European Cup to Inter in Vienna (27-5-1964). But it’s the same. Modric is a legend at the height of those giant names in the history of the Real Madrid.