[h=1]Euro 2012: Croatia's Luka Modric will be key to opener against Ireland[/h]Croatia's Luka Modric is putting his Tottenham transfer woes behind him to focus on Euro 2012
Croatia's Luka Modric, a key figure in the match versus Ireland, has drawn strength from his transfer travails at Tottenham. Photograph: Darko Bandic/AP
When
Luka Modric demanded to leave
Tottenham Hotspur for Chelsea last summer, the club's refusal to sell came from the very top. Joe Lewis, Tottenham's billionaire benefactor, stepped in to tell the chairman, Daniel Levy, that under no circumstances should the playmaker be allowed to depart. Chelsea's ?ú40m would have made Modric the most expensive sale in Spurs' history. It did not matter. Lewis's message was clear. Tottenham were not a selling club.
If the stance reflected the esteem with which Modric is held at White Hart Lane, it also presented the supreme test of the Croatian's professionalism and mental toughness. When the transfer window closed in September 2011, Modric had to consider a long season ahead with a club he felt he had outgrown. Some players might have lost their way. Modric merely refocused and set about spearheading the challenge for Champions League qualification. Nobody could quibble about his effort or form.
The 26-year-old has an inner steel that makes a mockery of the pressure on his slight shoulders. He enters
Euro 2012 and
Croatia's opening Group C fixture against the Republic of Ireland in Poznan on Sunday as the fulcrum of the team, the man who has to perform if his country is to progress from a tough pool also featuring Spain and Italy.
In the background is his club situation. Modric still wants to leave Tottenham, particularly after their failure to make the Champions League and his issue with Levy is unresolved; he accused him of reneging on a gentleman's agreement last summer to allow him to talk to an interested big club. Modric has ignored the sop of improved terms at Tottenham.
His problem is the six-year contract he signed in the summer of 2010, which gives Levy plenty of leverage. Talk to agents and they tut-tut about the wisdom of the player being advised to autograph that piece of A4. Levy remains adamant that Modric will not be sold this summer, and it would be over his dead body where Chelsea and Manchester United are concerned. But an offer upwards of ?ú50m could have restorative powers.
Modric is not an outspoken person. He rarely gives interviews, he does not court the limelight and he zealously guards the privacy of his family life. But when he does speak publicly, there is a frankness and simplicity about his views. Modric can do nothing about the background noises, which are typically loud around the Croatia camp at present, but his single-mindedness tends to get him through.
"The way I recovered from last summer has to do with who I am as a person," he told Totalsport in Croatia. "It's not in my character to give in to disappointment and let it affect my performance. I behaved like nothing had happened. Obviously it was hard for me because my wish to move wasn't granted. But as soon as it became clear that I wasn't going anywhere, I knew I would keep putting in my best, just like I had before.
"It never crossed my mind that I could start behaving in any other way. That's how I was taught and I just don't know how to do things differently. The transfer window was over and there was nothing left to distract me – that was, mentally, the crucial thing for me and that's when my inner strength started to show."
Modric's character was forged in the midst of childhood adversity. At the age of six, as the Croatian war of independence raged, he and his family were forced to flee their home to became refugees in Zadar. His father served in the army and his grandfather would be lost to the conflict.
Modric had little. His first pair of shin-pads were made of wood but, despite his fragile appearance, nobody pushed him around and the setbacks, chief among them a rejection by Hadjuk Split, only made him stronger.
Having signed with Dynamo Zagreb as a teenager, he was loaned to Zrinjski in the Bosnian Premier League, which, to put it politely, was Europe's most combative division. Aged 18, Modric was the league's player of the year. The Premier League's hard-men have looked like pussycats.
Ireland are wary of Modric. When the manager, Giovanni Trapattoni, complained about how his team had allowed Hungary's creative midfielders too much space in Monday's friendly, it was with Modric in mind. Ireland's players have respectfully name-checked him all week.
Slaven Bilic admitted that "everyone expects the most from Luka … if he plays well, the team play well", and the Croatia manager has done everything to refresh Modric after a tiring season, in which he started 36 Premier League games. Bilic rested him during the 1-1 friendly draw against Norway and he has devised a special training programme for him.
Modric dictates Croatia's rhythm with his passing from a deep-lying central midfield role, in what is broadly a 4-4-2 formation, but Bilic will also encourage him to break forward and shoot. Even without the injured striker Ivica Olic, Croatia have attractive options up front. But they will take their lead from Modric. The man in the spotlight oozes assurance.
"When we are at our best, we can cope with just about any opponent, even the Spaniards," Modric said. "Our key players are in their prime and on a good day, we can beat anyone. We have shown that many times."
