The touching moment came after a dramatic match between Italy and Croatia at the European Football Championship. The rival’s journalist confessed his admiration for star Croatian midfielder Luka Modrić at a press conference.
1:02
The Italian journalist was overcome with emotion. He asked Luka Modric to play football forever. | Video: Reuters
The Croats’ 1:1 draw on Monday brought the end of the Euros in Germany much closer. The seasoned midfielder regretted conceding a goal at the very end. Just like coach Zlatko Dalič, he did not understand why eight minutes were set. With the Croatians likely to be out of the tournament, the Real Madrid player did not avoid being asked about his future career.
At one point, the opponent’s journalist took the microphone in his hand and began to thank Modrić with emotion. “Good evening Luca, as an Italian journalist I would like to thank you for everything you have done not only tonight but throughout your career. Once again you are a top class player. You scored even though you missed the penalty. I wanted you just to say this, I would like to ask you to never end your playing career, because you are one of the best players I have ever commented,” the Italian said.
“Thank you very much for this wonderful honor, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I would also like to play forever, but there will probably come a time when I have to hang up my football boots. I will continue to play, I don’t know how long,” replied Modrić, who then he winked conspiratorially towards the journalists. He probably didn’t have a representative dernier against the Italians. “We’ll see, now is not the time for these stories,” Modrič pointed out.
The silver and bronze holders from the last two world championships were on their way to a valuable win over the defending European gold medalists and a place in the round of 16. From the 55th minute, they led thanks to Modrič, who at the age of 38 years and 289 days became the oldest scorer in history at the Euro. “It doesn’t mean anything to me if it didn’t help the team to win,” said Modric. Substitute Mattia Zaccagni equalized in the eighth minute of regulation, thus sending his team to the elimination phase.
Eight minutes? Modric got angry, the Croatians curse the referee. And they look forward to the collapse of the Czech Republic. (Full article with video here.)
“I think that Croatia needs to be respected and recognized,” said Croatian coach Zlatko Dalič | Video: Reuters, Associated Press
