‘He Motivated Us, He’s A Real Leader,’ Modric Reminisces Ronaldo’s Time In Bernabeu
Cristiano Ronaldo’s former teammate Luka Modric has opened up on the importance of the football icon during his time at the Spanish capital.
Modric won the Ballon d’Or award in 2018 to end the long-running duopoly of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi on the world’s football biggest personal award. For the past decade, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi had been dominating the award with both of them winning the award 10 times apiece before Luka Modric usurped them. Lionel Messi went ahead to add further one award to his collection in 2019.
But despite the Croatian’s success being generally accepted by the football community, there were questions to whether the decision to award him the highest individual honour ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo, who was his teammate before the award was given.
Some football fans and pundits believed that Cristiano Ronaldo deserved to win his sixth Ballon d’Or for leading Real Madrid to their third successive Champions League glory. At that time, rumours went around that a bitterness arose between Cristiano Ronaldo and Luka Modric following the outcome of the award.
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However, the Real Madrid playmaker has debunked those claims and insists that he has a healthy relationship with his former teammate.
Luka Modric On His Relationship With Ronaldo
Speaking on an interview with FourFourTwo, Modric revealed he is still in contact with the former Real Madrid man and that Ronaldo even wrote to him after he picked up the Ballon d’Or award in 2018.
“With Cristiano, we are still in contact and when I won [the Ballon d’Or], he wrote to me,” Luka Modric told FourFourTwo, via RMC Sport.
“When someone like him sends you a message to congratulate you, it means a lot, because he knows what it’s like to win, he has done it several times.”
“Playing with Cristiano at Real Madrid was amazing, so special. He is one of the best players in football history. He was so demanding … During the matches he wanted everyone to give the best of themselves. He motivated us, he’s a real leader,” added Modric.
It is obvious that Cristiano Ronaldo is not what he’s termed to be by most people. The star forward might look arrogant but in reality, he’s actually humble and responsible!
