Europa League: Tottenham’s unbeaten run ends in thrilling 2-3 loss to Galatasaray
Tottenham Hotspur’s flawless start in the Europa League came to an end on Thursday, as they fell 3-2 to a resilient Galatasaray side.
Some of the top European clubs are always in race to try and present the best talent in the continent to the world. This way they save the money they might potentially pay for these future stars later. One such modern day star, who is currently with the Real Madrid team, revealed that he was close to joining Premier League giants Chelsea in his early days, however, the move failed to materialise. The player is none other than Luka Modric.
The Real Madrid star has admitted in his book that he ‘broke down’ when his attempted move to Chelsea failed. Notably, the Croatian midfielder was supposed to move to London in the winter break of the 2007/08 season from Dinamo Zagreb but both the team could not finalise the deal.
“During the winter break, which I spent in Zadar, I got information that Dinamo and Chelsea were practically in agreement,” Modric has stated in his book as quoted by 90 min.
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“Zdravko Mamic [Dinamo Zagreb’s executive director] flew to London and was convinced that I would be moving to Stamford Bridge in the winter transfer window.
“While I was waiting for a sign with Vanja [Modric’s wife] in Zadar, rumours began to emerge that the clubs had failed to agree on the terms of the contract and that the transfer had failed.
“After telling the parents the end of the story, I left their apartment and in the parking lot in front of the building, while talking to Vanja about it, I broke down. I couldn’t hold back my tears.”
However, the rest as they say, is history, Modric eventually did end up moving to London but for Chelsea’s rivals Tottenham Hotspur. He went on to spend as many as four years with them. There were speculations that he might move to Chelsea post his stint at Tottenham but again the two teams failed to come to agreement.
Instead, Modric changed bases to Real Madrid in 2012 and has won four Champions League titles with them so far. He even went on to clinch the 2018 Ballon d’Or after a superb year with both club and country.
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