Milan market: decisive World Cup to define Luka Modric’s future
Accounting for Milan: a World Cup to figure out what to do, and figure out whether to restart in the Rossoneri colors or turn his career around. Which, potentially, could also come to an end. That is the doubt of Luka Modric, who will indulge in yet another catwalk for his Croatia side in the coming weeks and only then will he define his future. That could be on the pitch, at Milan, or behind a desk at Real Madrid.
After all, Modric still boasts an option that would allow him to extend his contract with AC Milan. In addition to a review of his physical and athletic condition, however, the Croatian star wants to understand who will be the new coach he would find at Milanello after the World Cup. Only after a personal discussion, in which to shed light on the technical project and seasonal goals, will his decision come. In case of black smoke, Real Madrid is waiting for him to re-embrace him and offer him an active role in their management.
On this front, Milan seems to have made important steps forward in the last hours. Oliver Glasner, the Austrian coach currently at Crystal Palace, is in fact getting closer and closer to signing with the Diavolo: according to rumors from the club’s headquarters, a final decision could come as early as the next few hours. Glasner, 51, has won the FA Cup, Community Shield and Conference League with the Londoners, establishing himself as one of the most interesting coaches on the European scene. His soccer, offensive and based on pressing and vertical play, represents a radically different philosophy than that of Massimiliano Allegri.
Glasner’s candidacy is supported by Ralf Rangnick, who could take over as the club’s technical director, but also by Zlatan Ibrahimovic himself and likely future sporting director Devin Ozek. Ibrahimovic himself, after all, has been in recent weeks one of the few managers to make concrete attempts to retain Modric, contacting him several times to explain the Rossoneri project. Signals that the Croatian has listened attentively, without, however, yet dissolving his reservations.
The central node remains that of European competition. Modric had chosen Milan with the stated goal of having one last great season in the Champions League, and the failure to qualify for the continent’s top competition has inevitably changed the game. Landing in the Europa League, decidedly less attractive for a player accustomed to the most prestigious stages, has significantly cooled his enthusiasm toward staying. The upcoming World Cup with Croatia could therefore represent, in the intentions of the person concerned, the natural epilogue of an extraordinary career.
To further complicate the picture, Modric’s future is not the only knot to be untied at Milan. According to leaks from the Rossoneri circles, there would be several players ready to leave Milanello at the end of the season: from Rafael Leao, whose farewell seems now a foregone conclusion, to Mike Maignan, who has been insistently approached by Juventus, passing through Adrien Rabiot, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Youssouf Fofana. A potential exodus that makes it all the more urgent for the RedBird club to find the right answers in the market and, above all, to give the bench a certain name as soon as possible: precisely that certainty that Modric, at the moment, is still waiting for.
