How many trophies has Luka Modric won? Croatia World Cup star profiled

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The Qatar World Cup has, amongst other things, been a story of two 37-year-olds.  

While Cristiano Ronaldo’s extraordinary career appears to be winding down with a whimper, former Real Madrid team-mate Luka Modric continues to laugh brazenly in the face of Father Time. Age, as far as he is concerned, is but a number.

The evergreen number ten has played nearly every minute of Croatia’s 2022 World Cup campaign, and will be the first name on Zlatko Dalic’s team-sheet for Tuesday’s semi-final clash with Lionel Messi’s Argentina at the Lusail Stadium. 

Modric is already the oldest player ever to feature for Croatia on football’s biggest stage. What’s more, he is also the first player in football history to play in both the World Cup and the European Championship across three different decades. The one-time Tottenham favourite earned the first of his staggering 160 caps all the way back in 2006. 

And if this is to be Modric’s final World Cup campaign, winning the thing would be a fitting denouement to an outstanding CV. Losing to France in the final back four-and-a-half years ago, one of the most decorated players in club football still needs international honours to complete his collection. 

How many trophies has Croatia’s Luka Modric won?

In total, Modric has 27 pieces of silverware in his personal trophy cabinet. That includes a trio of league titles at Dinamo Zagreb, and a record five Champions League winners’ medals with Real Madrid.

Modric also won the Ballon D’Or back in 2018; breaking up the Ronaldo-Messi duopoly along the way.

“It’s such a pleasure to see him play,” Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni says at his pre-match press conference. “He’s a role model for so many of us. Not because of his talent but his behaviour.

“We should enjoy him and others like (Poland’s Robert) Lewandowski as much as we can. If you love football, you have to enjoy watching these types of players.”

Croatia’s midfield maestro will not even be the most decorated player on the pitch as Dalic’s side go head-to-head with Scaloni’s Argentina, however. Messi, the Albiceleste captain and Modric’s opposite number, has close to 40 trophies under his belt. 38 in total.  

But there remains one giant, World Cup-shaped gap on Messi’s mantelpiece. Arguably football’s finest ever player can take one giant stride towards filling it by knocking out Modric’s Croatia tonight.