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Luka Modric broke a decade-long Lionel Messi-Cristiano Ronaldo duopoly on the Ballon d'Or award back in 2018. Soon after receiving the award, he also slammed the two superstars for failing to attend the award ceremony.
Ronaldo and Messi shared the Ballon d'Or between them from 2008 to 2017, with the duo winning the prestigious award five times each. However, their dominance was finally broken in 2018, with Modric emerging as the winner.
The Croatian midfielder had led his national side to the 2018 World Cup final and also won the Champions League with Real Madrid that year. He was naturally voted the best footballer of the year.
However, the award ceremony wasn't attended by both Messi and Ronaldo as they were not going to win the Ballon d'Or. This did not go down well with Modric, who thought it wasn't fair on the duo's colleagues that they chose to give the gala a miss.
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Luka Modric told Sportske Novosti (via Mirror):
“I cannot say why someone did not attend – that’s their choice. That is logical, is it not? It turns out these choices and trophies only have value when they get them."
“It is not fair to their playing colleagues, or to the voters who have nominated them for the past 10 years," he added. "Nor for football or supporters. But I repeat, everyone behaves the way they think they need to.”
Since Modric's Ballon d'Or win, Messi has won the award twice more but Ronaldo hasn't won even once.
When Zinedine Zidane told Luka Modric that he will win the Ballon d'Or
During the 2018 Ballon d'Or award ceremony, Luka Modric also revealed that Zinedine Zidane believed that the Croatian would win the prestigious trophy.
Zidane joined Real Madrid as their senior team's head coach in January 2016 and that was when he told Modric about his Ballon d'Or belief.
"When Zidane became Madrid coach in January 2016, he called me to his office one day after training and told me how he saw me as a player and what he expected of me," he said (via Mirror).
"He told me that I was an important player for him and, above all, that he saw me as a player who could win the Ballon d'Or," Modric added.
Zidane had a hugely successful first stint with Los Blancos, winning three consecutive Champions League titles.
